Interviewing the Applicants – Who Chose Who?

  • May 13, 2019, 2:50 pm America/Los_Angeles

At its April 23, 2019 City Council meeting, the City Council approved the following process for identifying an individual for appointment to the existing City Council vacancy (by a vote of 3-1, Councilmember Fox opposed):

  1. Following the application submission deadline, each Councilmember will choose up to four applicants to interview.
  2. The order of interviews will be determined by random selection (conducted by City Clerk in a public setting). The City Clerk will draw names and schedule interviews in that order.
  3. Each candidate/applicant will be allowed 15 minutes total, which includes their presentation and a City Council question and answer period. Phone interviews will be permitted for those who cannot attend in person. Each interviewee will be asked not to enter the Council Chamber until their scheduled interview.
  4. Following the interviews, each Councilmember will choose 2 to 3 finalists, which the City Clerk will list based on a random process and at which time the City Council will consider each of the finalists in order until a majority vote is reached.

Interview schedule for Tuesday, May 14:

Time Applicant Party Councilmember
12:05 p.m. Chen, Gang R Shea
12:20 p.m. Kang, Sukhee D Khan
12:35 p.m. Owens, Rachel R Kuo
12:50 p.m. O’Malley, Caroline “Carrie” R Shea
1:05 p.m. Carroll, Michael C. R Kuo
1:20 p.m. Ehrlich, David C. R Kuo
1:35 p.m. Hansen, Scott Robert D Khan
1:50 p.m. Johnson-Norris, Lauren D Fox
2:05 p.m. Metz, Conrad William R Kuo
2:20 p.m. Stein, Russell NPP Shea
2:35 p.m. Smith, Greg R Shea
2:50 p.m Khamsi-Farivar, Shiva D Khan

Here is a list of which Councilmember selected which applicants:

Mayor Shea
Carrie O’Malley
Greg Smith
Gang Chen
Russell Stein

Melissa Fox
Lauren Johnson-Norris

Farrah Khan
Shiva Farivar
Sukhee Kang
Scott Hansen

Anthony Kuo
David C. Ehrlich
Rachel A. Owens
Michael C. Carroll
Conrad W. Metz

Additional Information and Procedures

(Per the City Council agenda)
31 applications were submitted to the City Clerk by the May 3, 2019 application deadline. Those applications were then forwarded to the City Council for review. On May 8, 2019, each Councilmember provided up to four applicants that would move forward in the interview process  following which the City Clerk, in the Council Chamber, randomly called the selected applicants to schedule interviews to take place during the special City Council meeting on May 14, 2019 from
12 to 4 p.m. (Attachment 1).

Each applicant will be allowed fifteen minutes in which to give a presentation that will include a question and answer period. The City Clerk will be timing the applicant interviews to ensure a fair and transparent process.

Following the interviews, and time permitting, the City Council will move into the discussion and deliberation portion of the meeting. Following the special meeting, the May 14, 2019 regular City Council meeting will convene at 4 p.m., with continued deliberations to be held during Agenda Item No. 5.2. At that time, each City Councilmember may offer 2 to 3 finalists for final review.

The order of consideration of finalists will be based on a random selection process conducted by the City Clerk. Each candidate will be considered in order until a majority vote is reached.

If the City Council is not able to make an appointment at the May 14, 2019 regular City Council meeting, the item could be continued to the meeting of May 28, 2019 allowing for further review and consideration of qualified applicants. The deadline for appointment by the City Council is June 3, 2019. If no appointment is made by the June 3, 2019, the City Council is required by the Irvine Municipal Code to call a special election to fill the vacancy.

The interviews will be public and broadcast on ICTV.

For the list of interview times memo from city clerk click HERE.

For the May 14th City Council Agenda click HERE.