As it does every two years, the Signal Hill City Council-appointed commissioners last Thursday, April 29—three to each of the City’s three commissions.
Each commission has five seats and each commissioner serves a four-year term. Three seats on each commission are expiring on May 31 this year. New terms will begin June 1 and continue to May 31, 2025.
All seven sitting commissioners with expiring terms who sought reappointment were chosen, along with two new candidates.
Planning Commission appointments
The council reappointed two sitting commissioners to the Planning Commission—Victor Parker and Christopher Wilson. It also appointed new candidate Sonia Savoulian.
The three will join Perica Bell and Rose Richárd, whose Planning Commission terms won’t expire for another two years. Armando Lopez did not seek reappointment.
Civil Service Commission appointments
For the Civil Service Commission, the council also reappointed two existing commissioners—Daritza Gonzalez and Paul Patterson—and selected new candidate Julianne Doi.
The other two sitting Civil Service Commissioners are Ayda Ghebrezghi and Ronald Griggs. Steve Strichart did not seek reappointment.
Parks and Recreation Commission appointments
For the Parks and Recreation Commission, the council reappointed all three sitting commissioners with expiring terms—Tim Anhorn, Pam Dutch Hughes and Terry Rogers.
Council members argue over appointment method
Early in the meeting, Councilmembers Tina Hansen and Lori Woods had objected to the system of nominating and voting that Mayor Edward Wilson chose to follow in making commissioner appointments, saying it was not the method Wilson said he would follow prior to being rotated in as mayor.
See related story: Signal Hill City Council chooses Edward Wilson as mayor, Keir Jones as vice mayor
“I feel like you were dishonest with us,” Hansen said. “This is why I wanted to be the mayor during this process because I would have allowed people to nominate from the very beginning and not put my slate up first.”
Wilson said he hadn’t decided at the time what his process would be, adding that appointing commissioners was not about the council but about the candidates.
“I do not believe I was dishonest,” he said. “Until you know what the slate is, then how do you know if that would be your nominee or not?”
Referring to Wilson’s commissioner selection process four years ago that had deviated from the council’s habitual method of allowing all councilmembers to nominate, not just the mayor, Woods said she was disappointed.
“I feel yet again that we’ve been blindsided on very short notice,” Woods said.
See related story: Confusion by mayor’s commission appointment method creates uncertainty for council members and commissioners alike
As he did four years ago, Wilson said his appointment method this year is not inconsistent with the City Charter, which states that commissioners “shall be appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the city council.”
“It’s still disingenuous,” Woods said.
Once all commissioners had been appointed, Councilmember Robert Copeland said Wilson’s chosen process seems to have worked. Wilson said that it’s important to have different approaches.
“You can’t say we’re not passionate about it,” Hansen said.
Wilson also encouraged the candidates that the council didn’t select to consider volunteering for other City committees and organizations, and to try again.
“It is important to stay diligent and continue to try and be a participant,” Wilson said. “Our community is so much better when we get a multitude of people to participate.”
The voting process
The council considered a total of 16 candidates for the commission seats and conducted interviews with each on April 29 before making their selections. Wilson said he also met with most of the candidates beforehand to help him assess.
“We have amazing people that live in Signal Hill,” he said. “We have extremely qualified candidates that are applying.”
Each candidate spoke for three minutes during the nearly four-hour meeting before the council asked them questions. Wilson, who is Black, made a point of asking each candidate their views on systemic racism.
Wilson then nominated a slate of three candidates for each of the commissions that the council then voted on.
The council voted 4-1 in favor of Wilson’s slate of candidates for the Planning Commission. Only Copeland voted no because he said there was another candidate he wanted on the list.
However, for the Civil Service Commission, the council initially voted 3-2 against the slate, with only Copeland and Wilson voting in favor.
The council then defaulted to voting for individual candidates on the slate. Voting was unanimous for Gonzalez and Patterson. The council voted 3-2 in favor of Doi, who was then seated. Hansen and Vice Mayor Keir Jones voted in opposition.
The council also challenged Wilson’s slate of nominations for the Parks and Recreation Commission, which included Anhorn but also new candidates Saeida Miller and Lisa Wong.
Only Wilson voted in favor of the whole list. In voting individually for nominees on the slate, the council unanimously chose Anhorn but voted 3-2 against both Miller and Wong.
Some council members said they would have preferred Miller for the Civil Service Commission rather than Parks and Recreation and therefore voted against.
Since two nominees on the slate were not selected, the council as a whole nominated additional candidates: Hughes, Rogers and newcomer Sherrie Routier.
Voting in alphabetical order, the council chose Hughes unanimously and Rogers 3-2, with Copeland and Wilson voting against.
Hansen had objected to Wilson’s initial slate, saying that Wilson may not have nominated Rogers because she had run for a City Council seat last year and lost, adding that Rogers is very familiar with the city and Hughes reflects the interests of older Americans.
“They are the only sitting commissioners that you did not nominate,” she said.
Wilson replied that he nominated Miller because he felt it was important to have someone with her work background and young children on the Parks and Recreation Commission.
“To include more people means somebody that’s there gets excluded because we only have five seats,” Wilson said. “If our goal is just to seat those that are already on the commission, there’s no reason to have a process.”
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