CLEARLAKE >>The Clearlake City Council plans to fill the vacant seat on the planning commission immediately after public interviews with two candidates at its regular meeting today.
Up for consideration are former appraiser Russell Cremer and graphic designer Peter Shandera, both of whom had long careers and experience in public service. Each will have up to five minutes to make a stump speech and then they will have to answer the same questions from city council members during a public hearing.
After the interviews, the public will be given a chance to comment. The council will once again deliberate and then entertain a motion.
This process is part of the new Appointment Policy that was adopted at the last meeting on March 10, and established a three member ad hoc committee — comprised of the Mayor, Vice Mayor, and the planning commission chair — to select three nominees to be interviewed by the council in front of the public.
However, that step was skipped as only two applications were received for the seat formerly belonging to Bill Perkins, who officially resigned on March 15.
The Candidates
A fourth-generation resident, Russell Cremer, 67, claimed he comes from a family that has repeatedly served Lake County. His relative, John Martin Adamson, was the District 2 representative on the Board of Supervisors for more than ten years, starting in 1902.
“I think it’s my turn,” Crèmer, who also served as a director for Lake County Fire District,said. “I live in this community and I want to see it grow. I want to give something to that process.”
According to the resume he submitted to the county, he spent nearly 13 years in his early career as a land appraiser for Bank of America. He would eventually work at the company for about 43 years, moving on as a top agricultural consultant.
The U.C. Davis graduate said that these skills in real estate combined with the law classes he’s taken make him well suited to be a commissioner.
“It gives me enough background for the job,” he said.
His experience will be stacked up against that of Peter Shandera, 70, a graphic designer from the East Bay Area whose 30-year career made him thoroughly active in municipal planning.
“I’ve been involved in planning in form or another for my whole career,” Shandera, who has owned property in the city since 2000, said.
According to his application, he worked as a designer and landscape planner for The Hayward Area Parks and Recreation District. He also claimed to be involved in plans to open the levees along the shores of the San Francisco Bay and allow public access.
Calling himself “semi-retired,” Shandera has worked and volunteered for art galleries and the city of Clearlake. The city used his skills to complete three land use studies in the last five years, including the 2014 Lakeshore Drive Property Study.
Now, he wants to get more involved with the city’s planning as he is concerned about its direction, especially its businesses.
“We don’t have an identifiable downtown,” he said, also adding that similar business are close to each other. “It worries me that some business owners are threatened and the city let them move next door,
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Clearlake City Hall. The elected candidate’s term will last until March 2017.
