Lake Forest City Council Irons Out Selection Process

By Martin Henderson

The City Council of Lake Forest has 8 1/2 weeks to fill the vacancy on its dais following the resignation of Peter Herzog, and will get under way with interviews with five days to spare.

Twelve residents hopeful of receiving three votes from the four council members will be interviewed on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 5:30 p.m. in a special meeting at City Hall. An optimistic city clerk will schedule interviews 10 minutes apart to accommodate various schedules, basically meaning the interviews may not take place in alphabetical order. 

Mayor Scott Voigts, Mayor Pro Tem Kathryn McCullough, and councilmen Adam Nick and Dwight Robinson, must choose a fifth council member by Dec. 14 or force a special election in April. The Orange County Registrar of Voters told city staff an election will be in the neighborhood of $166,000 to $188,000, depending on the number of voters.

All council members said previously the cost was prohibitive, though McCullough made a point of saying she preferred a vote of the people and has made other cautionary comments warning the council may not be able to come to an agreement. 

The council ironed out a process Tuesday they hope will lead them to a consensus to fill the seat that has been vacant since Herzog's resignation on Oct. 15.  

The council determined each applicant will have four minutes to say what he wants, and then will answer questions from the council. 

The council said it preferred applicants not repeat what's already included in the extensive application packet, which is as complete as has ever been asked for by the city; it spans who they know in city government to how many ribbon cuttings they've attended at local businesses. 

• Gardner's Blog: The Fifth Seat—Basic information
• Gardner's blog: The Fifth Seat—What they hope to accomplish

After the interview, there is some leeway as council members will vote by ballot for their top choice. There was no distinction whether there would be open discussion about the candidates, but in appointments of planning commissioners and parks and recreation commissioners earlier this year, the balloting took place with no discussion even though it went several rounds. 

If council members reach an impasse and are unable to come to an agreement, they will then go to a "tier system" in which each names a person to a first tier, second tier and third tier, but each council member must add a different person to the tier until all tiers are filled; in other words, if Nick makes Jim Gardner his first tier choice, the other council members cannot also name Gardner. 

Nick has said in the past he is voting for Gardner because, in the 2010 election in which Herzog ran, Gardner was next-highest vote-getter to not be elected. Gardner and former planning commissioner Terry Anderson both ran in 2012, and Anderson finished runner-up to Nick and Robinson, with Gardner finishing fourth and former councilwoman Marcia Rudolph fifth. Anderson and Rudolph are among the dozen applicants.

If the council is unable come to an agreement from the first tier—the winning applicant will need to get three votes—then council will consider the second-tier candidates, then the third-tier candidates.

Vying for the fifth seat on the dais are: 

• Terry Anderson, a financial planner and former planning commissioner
• Anna Antoniou, a real estate agent
• David Bass, a consultant, and former treasurer for Lake Forest
• Jowanna Cannon, an underwriter
• Steven Carlson, computer networking and retired marine
• Hugh Everhart, real estate appraiser
• Jim Gardner, a retired clinical psychologist and management consultant
• Terri Graham, a business owner
• Andrew Hamilton, an accountant and member of the planning commission
• James Richert, consultant
• Marcia Rudolph, a retired teacher and former council member
• Trevor Sullivan, a student at Chapman University

The winning applicant will hold the position for the remainder of Herzog's term, which concludes at the end of 2014. Should the winner hope to continue beyond that date, (s)he would have to win an election in November.

The council also postponed the selection of the next mayor, to serve for one year, until the regularly scheduled Dec. 17 meeting so the new council member—if there is one—can participate in the selection process.