CARLSBAD OUTLINES LIMITS FOR COUNCIL INTERVIEWS

Applicants will answer 5 questions during meeting

Candidates for the vacant District 1 Carlsbad City Council seat will get a chance to hone their online meeting skills before Tuesday’s interviews.

“All applicants will be invited to practice with Zoom to be familiar with it before the meeting,” said Sheila Cobian, the city’s director of legislative and constituent services.

Carlsbad received 13 applications for the seat left open by the July 9 resignation of Councilmember Cori Schumacher. Each applicant will get three minutes to introduce themselves, then up to two minutes to answer each of five questions, and then one minute to close, under procedures the council adopted for the interviews.

The council approved five specific questions to outline the candidates’ positions on community growth, how to address homelessness, ways to protect the coastline, and other issues they would like to address as a council member. The fifth question is a hypothetical about how the city should handle a request to open a gas station and convenience store in a neighborhood where residents have concerns about possible negative effects on things such as traffic and noise.

After the candidates’ presentations, a recess will be taken for the council members to rank the candidates from 1 through 13. The rankings will be displayed for the council and the public.

The applicant with the lowest numerical ranking will be at the top of the list. The first candidate to get three affirmative votes or more will be appointed. If no consensus is reached Tuesday, the meeting will be continued to 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

The vacancy was created by the resignation of Schumacher, who said she was leaving San Diego County to attend a university outside the city. At the time, opponents seeking her recall said they had enough signatures to place the recall on the ballot.

The current vacancy expires with the November 2022 election. Under a Feb. 23, 2021, amendment to the city code, anyone appointed to the seat will not be eligible to run for the seat for at least a year after leaving office.

The candidates, in the order their applications were received by the city, are: Mark Packard, a retired dentist who served on the council from 2002 to 2018; Daniel J. Hughes, an executive with a consumer product company in Carlsbad; Julianne Nygaard, who had a total of 14 years on the council prior to 2006; Gary Nessim, a real estate broker and Carlsbad business owner; Peder Norby, a bakery owner and special projects consultant; Allen Manzano, a retired U.S. Navy commander and financial analyst; and Neal Keith, a Carlsbad native, teacher and soccer coach.

Also, Karl Schwarm, a former municipal employee; Caroline Bol, a television news producer; Jan Neffsinclair, a former software/ firmware engineer; Kyle Hargrave, an attorney; Mona Gocan, a civil engineer and small business owner; and Ryan Vaughn, a technical product manager.