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San Clemente council fills seven commission seats after interviews; recusal noted
Summary
After interviews of dozens of applicants, the council appointed members to the Planning Commission, Beaches/Parks & Rec, Arts & Culture and Golf committees. Council debated recusal rules after one member said he would "recuse myself voting on my wife."
The San Clemente City Council on Thursday confirmed multiple appointments to advisory commissions after a day of candidate interviews and internal balloting.
Council members appointed Cameron Cosgrove, Karen (last name not specified in the record), Aaron Washington and Scott (first name only in the record) to the Planning Commission following individual interviews and a public tally. Council then confirmed a set of appointments to Beaches, Parks & Recreation (John Doolagowski, Robert Dyer, Shauna Garcia and Katie Man as two-year members; Sahar Kamali, Patrick Higginson and Susan Ambrose as one-year staggered members) and put four candidates on the Arts & Culture Committee (Jessica Chong, Amanda Greco, Danielle Moran and Michael Wesberg). The Golf Committee slate (John Adams, Ben Page and Robert Zooberg) was also approved.
Early in the session councilors debated whether a member should be disqualified from voting on his spouse's application. One councilor said, "I will recuse myself voting on my wife," and other members pressed for legal guidance; the city attorney had not been present at the start of the discussion. Council ultimately proceeded with interviews and accepted a councilor's voluntary recusal from voting for a specific candidate while allowing that member to vote on others.
Council members agreed to standardize interview procedure for applicants: one-minute opening remarks followed by questions, and a timed five-minute interview window. Ballots were tallyed publicly and motions to approve the slates were moved and seconded on the record.
The actions sealed a tranche of appointments to advisory bodies that advise staff and council on land-use, coastal, parks and cultural programming. The council directed staff to notify selected applicants and to advertise remaining vacancies where applicable.
The council also discussed term staggering to balance future vacancies and noted it will hold a special recruitment for any unfilled seats.
