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Council reopens appointments to Public Defender Commission, votes to reconsider consent reappointment
Summary
Council voted to reconsider consent item 9c2 after members raised concern that three public defender commission reappointments were placed on the consent calendar without interviews; council directed staff to reopen recruitment and return with interview options and a proposed schedule.
Council Member Bergen moved on Nov. 3 to reconsider consent item 9c2 — the reappointment of three members to the Public Defender Commission — saying it was unclear the appointments would happen without interviews. "It was not clear with the consent agenda that we were going to just reappoint 3 members without interviewing them," Bergen said.
City staff said all applications received are in the meeting backup (six total), including three reappointment requests and three other applicants. City Attorney Pete Schulte advised that council interviewing applicants is not a conflict provided interviews are conducted like other commission interviews and no direction is given to appointed commissioners once seated.
Council members debated whether to interview a subset or all applicants and discussed outreach to increase applicant numbers. After discussion, the motion to reconsider passed (council recorded seven yes votes and three no votes from Council Members Coombs, Garner and Medina). Council directed staff to reopen recruitment for one month, advertise openings, and return with options for interviews, with a target interview date suggested for Dec. 15.
