Cal City planners are back at full strength

CALIFORNIA CITY — Two Planning Commissioners took the oath of office Jan. 14, bringing the Commission back to full membership after months of effort to fill two vacancies.

Interim Commission Chairman Jim Creighton and resident Carla Conry were sworn in by City Clerk Denise Hilliker for two-year terms.

The Council has been seeking to fill two seats for the expired terms of Creighton and Inge Elmes since September. In order to allow the Commission to continue to function, they were left on the Commission on an interim basis while the city recruited during a two-week period. During that time, the only applications received were from Creighton and Elmes, according to the staff report.

However, Elmes had to resign her seat when she was hired as the city’s Off-Highway Vehicle Manager on

Oct. 28.

During a second recruitment period ending Nov. 21, six-year resident Kristy Mundt was the only person to submit a letter of intent for the open position, and the Council considered her appointment on Dec. 10.

However, at that meeting questions were raised about the adequacy of the application period notification and the Council decided to reopen the process with a deadline of Jan. 3.

An interview committee consisting of Mayor Chuck McGuire, Councilmember Donald Parris, Planning Director Matthew Alexander and City Planner Shawn Monk met with applicants on Jan. 8 and asked each of the three the same 16 questions, ranking the answers. The applicant with the highest score was to be brought to Council for approval.

This process generated the nomination of Conry, who was unani

mously approved.

“There were three good citizens that were recognized,” Councilmember Ron Smith said, adding he felt the selection process was fair.

There was little discussion during the meeting, although former Councilmember Tami Johnson distributed to the Council copies of Facebook posting by Conry that she said included disparaging remarks about city workers, law enforcement, business owners and the marijuana industry.

“I just hope you give that information some consideration before making your decision,” she said.

Conry said the statements were taken out of context, were one to two years old and were in reaction to a period of harassment.

“I should be able to say what I want to say. It is America,” she said.

ALLISON GATLIN/VALLEY PRESS City Clerk Denise Hilliker (left) administers the oath of office to Planning Commissioner Carla Conry (center) and Planning Commission Chairman Jim Creighton on Jan. 14. Their appointments bring the Commission to full membership for the first time in several months.