Council prepares to grill candidates
Alicia Robinson
Over the next month, City Council members will be sizing up 31
candidates for city commissions, but the hot seat for grilling
applicants will be a private one.
The council will fill 10 spots -- five on the Parks and Recreation
Commission and five on the Planning Commission -- at its Feb. 7
meeting. Council members decided Monday night to interview potential
commissioners one-on-one instead of publicly as a council.
Giving each candidate a half-hour interview would have taken two
eight-hour days, but the council also could have chosen a short list
of interviewees. Three of the five council members thought group
interviews weren’t necessary because they already know many of the
candidates and need only look at resumes to narrow down their
choices.
“The applicants all had the opportunity to wow us with their
resumes and letters of interest,” Councilman Eric Bever said. “I feel
that I have gained more knowledge from that process than I would from
[a short interview].”
The council voted Dec. 13 to choose commissioners by a majority
vote of the full council, after using a system of direct appointments
by council members for nearly two years.
Councilwomen Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley, who urged group
interviews as a council, will likely conduct their interviews
together. Foley wants the council to work toward consensus votes on
commission appointees, but she thinks that goal was thwarted by the
three councilmen who voted against group interviews.
“They’re not telling anybody [which candidates they’re interested
in], and that’s what I think is the heart of the problem,” Foley
said. “It’s about learning from our colleagues why they prefer one
applicant over another and trying to come up with a balanced
commission.”
The council also decided Monday how it will choose among
commission candidates. Each council member will have a chance to make
a nomination, and if someone seconds it, the mayor will call for a
vote. A similar process created friction when it was used four years
ago, but Councilman Gary Monahan said there are important differences
this time around.
In 2001, then-Mayor Libby Cowan nominated an entire slate of
commissioners, leaving her colleagues scrambling to get their
nominees on the table with substitute motions, Monahan said.
A slate isn’t allowed this time. In spite of the 2001 fiasco,
Monahan said he prefers using nominations rather than giving
applicants points or some other system.
“It is as traditional and open, for nominations, as we can get,”
he said. “The whole basic system of government citywise is based on
majority, and the magic number is three.”
* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She
may be reached at (714) 966-4626
or by e-mail at alicia.robinson @latimes.com.
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