Nine apply for open Yuba City council seat

Yuba City City Council members may have a tough decision ahead, with nine people applying for appointment to the vacant position created by the departure of Leslie McBride.

The council is expected to appoint someone at its Oct. 16 meeting to serve for the remainder of McBride's term, which ends in November 2014. The council decided last month to replace McBride by appointment rather than through a special election, which could cost as much as $130,000.

The council is not holding public interviews with candidates, but individual council members can meet with the applicants on their own in the next two weeks. The individual will be elected through a public ballot and will need three votes to win.

Applicants are:

• Tony Blackwell, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2008. He currently serves on the parks and recreation commission, is co-chairman for Sutter County Juvenile Justice Commission and works with Sutter Yuba Friday Night Live.

• Timothy Core, an assistant manager at Domino's Pizza, who dropped out of the race for Congress this year and took out papers to run for the council this year, but did not file them.

• Dan Flores, the founder and president of Cambridge Community College.

• Sandra Hilliard, who was elected to the council in 1992 and served three times as mayor of Yuba City, most recently in 2003.

• Stephanie Ruscigno, an Army veteran and veterans advocate.

• John Sanbrook, a retired attorney who was a long-time city attorney for Yuba City and is a planning commissioner.

• Cyndi Shatswell, a group exercise and pilates director for Yuba City Health & Racquet Club who is involved with Relay for Life and the Pink October breast cancer walk-run.

• Craig Starkey, an insurance agent, who has been on the planning commission since 2003 and made a failed bid for the council in 2006.

• Tom Walther, who recently retired as chief executive officer of Peach Tree Healthcare, and before that was chief operating officer of Sutter North Medical Foundation. He is also a retired US Air Force captain.

Five candidates are also running for two vacancies in the Nov. 6 election — Councilman John Dukes, former council member Kash Gill, Larry Ozeran, Todd Remund and Rick Walsh.

With the possibility of two nonincumbents being elected and the appointed replacement for McBride, there is the potential for three new members on the council.

McBride announced this month she would be leaving the council, effective immediately, when she was appointed deputy director of business investment services for the governor's Office of Business and Economic Development.

CONTACT Ashley Gebb at agebb@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4783. Find her on Facebook at /ADagebb or on Twitter at @ADagebb.