DATE:
January 24, 2023
CATEGORY:
New Business
DEPT.:
City Attorney’s Office,
City Clerk’s Office,
City Manager’s Office
TITLE: Councilmember Vacancy—January 30
Applicant Interviews
RECOMMENDATION
Provide direction to staff on the number of applicants to be interviewed, questions to be asked, and length of time for each question or length of time for each applicant to respond during applicant interviews to fill the Councilmember vacancy at the January 30, 2023 Council meeting.
BACKGROUND
The City Council seat occupied by Sally Lieber became vacant on December 30, 2022 due to her election to the State of California Board of Equalization, as indicated in the letter she submitted to the City on December 13, 2022. Former Councilmember Lieber’s term would have ended in January 2025.
On January 5, 2023, the City Council selected the appointment process for filling the seat held by former Councilmember Lieber, which includes approving the advertisement and application time frame and deadline to apply, providing input on approving the application, directing the City Clerk to randomly select the interview order of the applicants, setting January 30, 2023 as the in-person meeting date to hold applicant interviews, and selecting tentative interview questions.
ANALYSIS
On January 5, 2023, the City Council directed staff to bring the questions back to Council for final consideration and selection.
Councilmember Vacancy—January 30 Applicant Interviews
January 24, 2023
The Council selected tentative interview questions as follows:
Council Proposed Interview Questions for January 30
1. What are your top priorities, and how would they get tackled?
2. Are there any issues where you disagree with Council direction, and what would you change?
3. How can we enhance the City’s livability and quality of life for our residents?
4. What items on the current Council Strategic Work Plan are important to you?
5. How would you balance private property rights and community benefits, and how would you consider public comments from residents?
6. What efforts would you take to help our existing businesses stay in Mountain View, make it easier for new businesses to enter, and reduce the number of longstanding empty storefronts?
Questions Council selected for inclusion on the application were:
1. How many Council meetings have you attended or observed, and what was your level of involvement?
2. What does “Community For All” mean to you?
3. Discuss one City Council goal and what it means to you.
4. Are you thinking of/planning to run for City Council in 2024?
5. What are your tho ughts/ideas for improving the housing supply to meet today’s requirements (including R3) as well as planning for the future?
Questions the City Council selected as topics for applicants to consider covering in their letter of interest were:
1. Why do you want to be appointed to the City Council?
2. Why do you believe you are the most qualified to serve on the City Council?
Councilmember Vacancy—January 30 Applicant Interviews
January 24, 2023
3. What is the most serious social issue in Mountain View?
4. If appointed, how will you develop and maintain a relationship with t he business community?
The City Clerk’s Office advertised the vacant seat from January 9 to January 13, 2023 and accepted applications up until January 18, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. Ten (10) applications meeting the minimum requirements to move forward in the p rocess were receive d from the individuals identified below:
Applicant Name
Ronit Bryant
Chris Clark
Brandon Gessert
Steven Goldstein
Michael Kasperzak
John McAlister
Michael Ralston
Emily Ann Ramos
Anita Rosen
Li Zhang
NEXT STEPS
The City Council could choose to interview all 10 applicants on January 30 , which would likely require a shorter interview time per applicant, or select only a certain number of applicants to put through to the January 30 interviews.
Should Council wish to narrow the applicant pool for interviews, a proposed process could be:
• At the same time, each Councilmember would write down their choice of five or six applicants to interview, or another specific number, and in no particular order.
• Those votes w ould be collected , and the City Clerk would publicly announce each Councilmember’s vote on the five or six applicants, or another specific number, to interview.
• The votes by each Councilmember would be tallied by applicant, and the applicants receiving the highest number of votes would be put through to interview.
Councilmember Vacancy—January 30 Applicant Interviews
January 24, 2023
• In the event of a tie vote, the Councilmembers would vote again on tied applicants until the number of desired applicants to interview is reached.
Alternatively, the City Council could determine another criteria by which to narrow the applicant pool, should it wish to interview fewer than 10 applicants.
The City Council should determine how many applicants will be put through to the January 30 interviews, select questions for the January 30 interviews , and finalize the amount of time that will be allocated to each question or each applicant for response. The questions to be asked, time allotted for each question or applicant, and the order of questions determined by the City Council should be the same for each applicant.
PUBLIC NOTICING—Agenda posting.
Prepared by:
Jennifer Logue
City Attorney
Heather Glaser
City Clerk
Kimbra McCarthy
City Manager
JL-HG-KMC/6/CAM
011-01-24-23CR
202757
Attachments: 1. Bryant Redacted Application
2. Clark Redacted Application
3. Gessert Redacted Application
4. Goldstein Redacted Application
5. Kasperzak Redacted Application
6. McAlister Redacted Application
7. Ralston Redacted Application
8. Ramos Redacted Application
9. Rosen Redacted Application
10. Zhang Redacted Application