After spending about four hours interviewing nearly 30 applicants for the Morgan Hill City Council Jan. 11, the body determined they could not appoint someone that evening due to an error that left one candidate off the list.
The council, which currently only has four of five seats occupied, will reconvene at the regular Jan. 18 meeting to conduct a preliminary interview of the last applicant, Mariana Solomon. The council will then conduct a second round of interviews with a shortlist of finalists before appointing one as the newest member to fill the seat left vacant with former Councilman Gordon Siebert’s Dec. 8 resignation.
At the Jan. 11 meeting, the council was able to narrow down the field of applicants to the top four, who will return Jan. 18 for follow-up grilling by the elected officials. These top four are attorney Caitlin Jachimowicz, Santa Clara Valley Water District retiree Carol Fredrickson, corporate board member and advisor Danielle Davenport and city Planning Commissioner John McKay.
The four existing council members—Mayor Steve Tate, Larry Carr, Rich Constantine and Rene Spring—reduced the field to these four by submitting their individual top three to the deputy city clerk after hearing a five-minute statement from each of the 24 applicants and reading all their resumes. Deputy City Clerk Michelle Wilson tallied all the votes, and the council decided to invite the four receiving the most votes to the Jan. 18 meeting.
Jachimowicz received three nods from the council, topping the vote tally. Davenport, Fredrickson and McKay each received two votes.
Applicants Yvonne Martinez, former Councilwoman Marilyn Librers and Mario Banuelos each received one vote from different council members—not enough to remain in the running.
Solomon, a fiscal services controller at Gilroy Unified School District, was left off the initial long list of applicants due to an “administrative” error by city staff, Tate said. She will have a chance to give a five-minute pitch to the council Jan. 18.
The council’s appointee to the vacant fifth seat will serve the remainder of Siebert’s unexpired term before the office goes up for election in November 2018.
Caitlin Jachimowicz
During her allotted five-minute pitch to the four council members Jan. 11, Jachimowicz said she wants to increase tourism in Morgan Hill while continuing to maintain the “small-town” atmosphere. She added that the city’s infrastructure could some improvement and the tax base could stand for some growth.
Jachimowicz is a criminal attorney at Jachimowicz Pointer Attorney at Law in San Jose, “focusing on record clearances, record reductions and other post-conviction relief,” among other areas, according to her resume.
She grew up in Morgan Hill, and cited this background as her “most important qualification” for serving on the council.
Danielle Davenport
Davenport, who ran for Gavilan College’s board of trustees in the Nov. 8 election, works as chair of the board of Palo Alto-based StratusVR, and is a co-founder of South Valley Angels, a venture capital funding network. She told the council that Morgan Hill is at a “tipping point” with encroaching regional development and growth.
“We have a unique opportunity to maintain our plans and values in Morgan Hill,” Davenport said. In response to questioning from council members, she said this balance can be maintained by “influencing people to get the best deal for us” when it comes to attracting new businesses or working with other groups or agencies in the region.
Carol Fredrickson
Fredrickson’s resume lists a variety of previous jobs related to public safety, environmental enforcement and the outdoors. These include work as a sworn peace officer and park ranger for the City of San Jose, environmental inspector/investigator and operations manager. She is retired from the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
She now works part-time and volunteers at the Morgan Hill Centennial Recreation Center and the Red Cross.
Responding to a question from Carr about growth—which was frequently asked of applicants during the Jan. 11 interview session—Fredrickson said the city is “doing a pretty good job” of finding a “happy medium” of a growth rate that maintains the small-town charm while also providing tax revenue.
John McKay
McKay is a familiar face to the council. He has been involved in numerous local community efforts since he graduated from Leadership Morgan Hill in 2010. These include the planning commission of which he has been a member since 2011, the Morgan Hill Downtown Association and the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance, among others.
He told the council Jan. 11 that the fact he is a “good listener” ranks high on his list of qualifications to serve on the city’s governing body.
He added that his experience working with “a lot of different people in the community” would be valuable as a council member who is expected to do the same.
McKay is also the author of the Morgan Hill Times’ “Our Town” column.
The Jan. 18 city council meeting will start at 7 p.m. at council meeting chambers, 17575 Peak Ave.
