City to Interview, Vote on Herzog's Replacement

By Martin Henderson

City Council members, in an effort to save taxpayers a special election that could cost about $180,000, will commence interviewing applicants to replace Peter Herzog at a special meeting today. 

Herzog resigned on Oct. 15, citing cronyism as one of the reasons he was leaving after about two decades on the dais. 

The council—Mayor Scott Voigts, Mayor Pro Tem Kathryn McCullough and councilmen Dwight Robinson and Adam Nick—have until Dec. 14 to reach an agreement on one of 12 candidates for the position. 

Interviews begin at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. Interviews have been scheduled 10 minutes apart, though each candidate will be allowed four minutes to speak before taking questions from the council. 

The plan is for council members to vote following the interviews and, if through a few rounds of voting they are unable to come to an agreement, "or make headway" as it was explained by City Manager Robert Dunek, then they will begin a deliberative process that includes three tiers of candidates of four candidates each, with each council member adding a different name to each tier of candidates.

The applicants who for the position are: 

• Terry Anderson, a stock broker/financial planner; former planning commissioner

• Anna Antoniou, a real estate agent

• David Bass, a consultant and former director of finance/city treasurer for Lake Forest

• Jowanna Cannon, a vice president/underwriter of an Irvine bank

• Steven Carlson, a computer networker

• Hugh Everhart, a real estate appraiser

• Jim Gardner, retired clinical psychologist, and management consultant

• Terri Lynn Graham, an author and exercise physiologist

• Andrew Hamilton, a certified public accountant; current planning commissioner

• Jim Richert, a business consultant 

• Marcia Rudolph, a former councilwoman first elected in 1991 and last elected in 2008

• Trevor Sullivan, city native and recent graduate of Chapman College

TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: How would you like to see this play out?