On Monday, April 7, the City Council will choose from among 18 candidates to temporarily replace the District 2 City Council seat vacated by now-mayor Kevin Faulconer.
“Each person will get three minutes to speak before the council,” said Katie Keach, deputy chief of staff for council District 3. Keach said selecting Faulconer’s replacement is the only item on the agenda.
At a recent press conference, District 3 Councilman Todd Gloria noted Faulconer’s replacement will be “sworn in immediately. We need a fully staffed council.”
The appointee will serve until December, when the newly elected City Council representative for District 2 will be seated. That interim councilmember will have the discretion to retain or replace existing District 2 staff, said Tracy Cambre, communications director for District 2.
Remaining District 2 staff are Thyme Curtis, chief of staff; Chet Barfield, council representative; and Nicole Capretz and Steve Hadley, council representatives.
Faulconer was sworn in March 3 and will serve until his term expires in December of 2016.
The 18 candidates for the temporary District 2 Council seat are: Stephanie Antin, CBS 8 executive producer; retired Judge Robert Coates; disabled-persons advocate Mary Elaine Cooluris; historical preservationist Bruce Coons; Karl Strauss Brewing Co. co-founder Christopher Cramer; retired San Diego State University education professor Jane Gawronski; lifeguard union chief Ed?Harris; accounts receivable clerk Daniel Holstein; attorney Cary Lowe; California?National Guard pilot James Mark McBride; ex-City Council staffer Don Mullen;?sales account manager James Musgrove; LeSar Development communications director Gretchen Kinney Newsom; attorney Wayne Raffesberger; retiree and frequent City Council public speaker Richard Jarvis Ross; state deputy Attorney General?Michael Howard Wayne; retired lawyer John Wertz; and architect Matthew Winter.
Coons lives in a historic home in Loma Portal. Coons is best known as longtime executive director of Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), the state of California’s oldest continually operating historic preservation group.
Coons, also a board member the Peninsula Community Planning Board, told his colleagues at the advisory group’s March meeting about his background and why he’s running for the vacant seat.
Noting he considers himself a grass-roots candidate, Coons said there’s been a “constant onslaught in quality of life,” adding that local government has had a pro-development bias and “hasn’t been listening to what local residents have had to say.”
Candidates running in this year’s election cycle for the District 2 full-term council position in the June primary, and the November run-off if necessary, are Lorie Zapf, current District 6 councilwoman; federal prosecutor Sarah Boot; Pacific Beach community activist Jim Morrison; and organic fertilizer marketer Mark Schwartz.