After weeks of somber discussion and an atypical public vetting process, the Lompoc City Council voted 3-1 (with council member Cecilia Martner dissenting) to appoint councilman Mike Siminski as mayor.
The longtime council member will serve the remaining term of Mayor Dick DeWees, who died unexpectedly on July 30.
Immediately after selecting Siminski as mayor, the council unanimously voted to appoint retired California Highway Patrol officer Tony Durham to the council position left vacant by Siminski.
Fellow council member Bob Lingl nominated Siminski as mayor after a more than three-hour meeting during which the council interviewed Siminski and eight other candidates, including Durham,
former mayoral candidate John Linn, former council members DeWayne Holmdahl and Jan Keller, former Mayor Joyce Howerton, former council candidates David Grill and Darrell Tullis, and Lockheed-Martin employee Geoffrey Wathen.
In accepting the position, Siminski said he didn’t expect to fill DeWees’ shoes, but that he would do everything in his power to guide the city through these tough economic times.
Durham, Siminski’s replacement, admitted to not having any political experience, but said he will draw on his ethics as a policeman while serving on the council.
“I’m about as black and white as the car I drove for 31 years,” Durham said. “Right is right and wrong is wrong.”
Durham’s appointment was unanimously approved after fellow finalists Keller and Howerton asked they no longer be considered for the councilmember position.
Still, some people disapproved of at least one of the appointments.
Several supporters of former mayoral candidate Linn appeared at the meeting, and one man went on record with the council stating: “A mountain is being made out of a molehill. … John Linn is the true and rightful mayor.”
Councilman Lingl said he made the nomination “based on what I think the city needs to keep moving forward.
“[The City Council] knew we were going to make 80 percent of the people of this town angry, but that’s what we were elected to do—to make the tough decisions,” he said.
In an interview after the meeting, councilwoman Martner told the Sun she was “very displeased with the [appointment] process, not necessarily the appointment itself.”
Martner said she felt Siminski had an unfair advantage in the vetting process because, unlike the other candidates, he was allowed to vote for himself.
Previously, the council had agreed that council members applying for mayor would not be able to vote for themselves. But on Siminski’s request, the council reviewed the matter and voted 3-1 to reverse the decision.
Siminski said other council members have been able to vote for themselves in the past, such as when running for mayor pro tem or when Mayor Pro Tem Ann Ruhge voted for herself during a previous attempt to find a replacement for DeWees. That appointment failed with a 2-2 vote.
Overall, the public seemed pleased with the appointments, breaking into applause after the council selected Siminski as mayor, and again when Durham was appointed.
“With everything that’s going on, I thought it would be the right decision to have someone with lots of experience take over as mayor,” Lompoc resident Sharon Prihoda said. “Mike Siminski was the right choice for that.”
Siminski and Durham are expected to assume their new duties at the council’s Sept. 1 meeting.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 3, 2009.
