CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council on Thursday appointed two city planning commissioners and decided not to appoint a city treasurer after it was suggested that the job's duties needed to be reconsidered.

The terms of planning commissioners Al Bernal and Fred Gaul expire next month. Bernal was seeking reappointment, although Gaul was not. Others seeking seats were Estella Creel, Bob Gordon and Alvaro Valencia.

Each council member voted for two commission candidates.

In the final tally, Bernal received five votes and Valencia received three, and the two men were appointed. Their terms will run from this coming March until March 2015.

While the city had received applications from six individuals for the city treasurer position – an elected position that has been filled by city staff since 2006 due to a lack of interested candidates – the council decided that the job description may no longer be relevant.

That issue was brought forward by Council member Judy Thein, who pointed out that the job description was written 30 years ago when the city was formed, and hadn't been updated.

Following a discussion, the council felt it was best to reconsider the job description before making an appointment.

Interim City Administrator Steve Albright suggested they send thank you notes to the six people who had applied, including Mark Bredt, Glen Gillham, Lacey Green-Deas, Jana Saccato, Jamee Schadlick and Evelyn Zientek.

“I think you want to encourage that kind of citizen participation to continue,” Albright said.

City Clerk Melissa Swanson will continue to act as city treasurer while Albright and the council look at the job further.

Mark Bredt, one of applicants, said he didn't disagree with anything he heard during the council's discussion regarding putting off a decision. However, he suggested it might be best to appoint someone to the position and have them participate in the process of realigning it.

Mayor Joyce Overton said if the council took that action the appointee would have the powers laid out in the current job description, and those might change.

The council briefly discussed going forward with an appointment but Thein suggested they would be going through the process twice since they were going to look at changing the job description.

In the end the council did not make an appointment.

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