David Rodeback's Blog

Friday, June 8, 2007

Candidates for Interim American Fork City Council Appointment

Here is a list of the six candidates who submitted materials for consideration.

The application deadline for candidates wishing to fill the American Fork City Council seat vacated by the late Councilman Jimmie Cates was 5:00 p.m. today. Six applicants presented a letter stating their interest and a resume; they will be invited to speak to the Council briefly on Tuesday in its regular meeting. The Council will appoint a replacement in a public meeting on Thursday. Note that this is a legislative appointment by the Council, not an executive appointment made by the Mayor and ratified by the Council.

In alphabetical order, the candidates are:

• George E. Brown, Jr. -- former Council member, mayoral candidate, and local attorney
• Dorothy V. "Ginger" Hunter -- longtime city resident and a very experienced volunteer
• Gary A. Jensen -- a consultant in the computer industry
• Deborah John -- an experienced volunteer in American Fork and elsewhere
• Sherry Kramer -- an effective grassroots organizer and a respected volunteer
• Steven Brent Stoker -- an elections specialist at the Salt Lake County Clerk's office

I will not attempt here to evaluate the three candidates I know, let alone the three I don't. But I will note my confidence that there is at least one very viable candidate here.

"At least one," I said, not "exactly one" -- though, technically, one would be enough.

David Rodeback comments (6/9/07):

I note with interest that none of the six candidates ran for City Council in 2005. One served on the Council previously and ran for mayor in the most recent City election, and one ran for City Council some years ago, apparently. But none of the several defeated candidates from 2005 applied for the vacant position. I don't know what it means; it's just interesting.

Comment on this entry
(Readable, relevant, civilized, substantive responses will be posted, regardless of position.)

Copyright 2007 by David Rodeback.
All rights reserved.
Permission is given to publish this article elsewhere on the Web or via e-mail only under these conditions: The article is published intact and unchanged, and is properly credited to the author; and a visible link is included to the article's page at LocalCommentary.com.