As of Tuesday afternoon, June 1, the city of Cloverdale received five applicants for its vacant Cloverdale City Council seat. According to city clerk Irene Camacho-Werby, Joe Palla, Eric Sanders, Maeta Emmons, Nicole Garcia-Hinchliffe and Jenny Candelaria-Orr filed applications for the seat.
The applications for those looking to be selected to the council were due at 5 p.m. on June 1.
The council will now review applications and hold a public interview process, currently set for June 9. The council has 60 days from the announcement of a vacancy to fill a vacant council spot or to call a special election, meaning that the council has until July 2 to choose a candidate. According to Camacho-Werby, if the council wants to appoint someone using its regularly scheduled council meetings, the last meeting before July 2 is scheduled for June 23.
The vacant council seat is a result of an early May resignation from former council member and mayor Jason Turner, who resigned May 3 due to a professional opportunity. Whoever is selected by the current members of the Cloverdale City Council to fill the seat will do so until the seat expires in December 2022.
The list of people throwing their hat into the ring for the position includes a variety of people both with and without formal experience in city government. Palla served on the Cloverdale City Council for 12 years, from 2006 until he decided not to re-run for the seat in 2018. Candelaria-Orr ran for city council in November 2020, placing third behind current Vice Mayor Todd Lands and incumbent Councilmember Melanie Bagby. Sanders currently serves on Cloverdale’s planning commission. Garcia-Hinchliffe ran for a council seat in 2020, finishing fifth. Emmons’ past civic engagement includes donating a car to the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center last year to help it raise money.
In a May council meeting, the council unanimously decided to open the position up for an application process rather than one involving a special election, which would cost the city $16,000 and $26,500. The full applications submitted will be available for perusal, along with the meeting agenda, by the end of the week.
