By Brian Hews
Twenty Lakewood residents have submitted applications to fill the vacancy on the city council after the recent death of longtime Councilman Larry Van Nostran.
At a special meeting on Tuesday night, the Lakewood City Council voted to create an “Ad Hoc Committee” of two council members to “further review the applications” of the 20 hopefuls.
Vice Mayor Steve Croft and Council Member Jeff Wood, will be working to whittle down the list of applicants down to five finalists.
Wood and Croft plan to present their list of five finalists at a special meeting of the city council on December 27.
By state law, the council can choose to appoint a Lakewood resident to the council vacancy by January 8, 2013, or they could reject all of the applications and call for a special election to take place on June 4, 2013.
“I was impressed by the quantity and the quality of the applications we received, both from long-time civic leaders and average residents who want to serve their community,” said Mayor Diane DuBois.
“The full range of applications was really heart-warming to me, and it shows that Lakewood is full of smart, caring residents who are ready to serve their city. Our council has successfully used this Ad Hoc Committee process before with unique issues, and I’m hopeful it can help us with this subject too.”
Here is a list of the 20 applicants: Abraham Alexander, Larry Andre, Bill Baca, Heidi Bender, James Dolan, Cassandra Fanton, Steve Hansen, Joy Janes, Thomas Phillips, Ron Piazza, Sherry Powell, Laura Sanchez-Ramirez, Gregory Slaughter, Vicki Stuckey, Marc Titel, Ron Wade, Donald Waldie, Rochessa Washington, Tom Weisenberger and Fabrizio Zazzeron.
