A surprise move by the Paso Robles City Council

I was surprised that the Paso Robles City Council voted Tuesday night to appoint Steve Gregory to fill the council’s new vacancy. He came in last in the recent City Council election. The three council members who voted to appoint him must have more confidence in him than the voters do.

The council election was Nov. 4. Three candidates finished out of the running. One of them was the outgoing Mayor Duane Picanco. He had decided this time to just run for the council and not for re-election as mayor. He lost by 14 votes.

Another losing candidate was Pam Avila. She got six fewer votes than Picanco.

Gregory was last, 212 votes behind Avila. Nevertheless three council members still voted to appoint him to the council. Those three were John Hamon, Jim Reed and Fred Strong.

Hamon is an incumbent councilman who was re-elected in November. Reed is a newly elected councilman. Fred Strong is an incumbent councilman with two years left on his four-year term.

The fifth member of the council is Mayor Steve Martin. He was an incumbent councilman, who had to resign after being elected mayor in November. It was that resignation that caused the vacancy on the council. Tuesday night Martin voted to appoint Picanco.

Gregory’s candidate’s statement for the Nov. 4 election listed his occupation as “Businessman, Planning Commissioner.” He has been on the city planning commission for more than five years. Hamon cited Gregory’s planning experience as a reason for nominating him for the council seat.

But there may be some people who will see Gregory’s failure to attract more voters as reason to wonder about his leadership and communication abilities.

I wasn’t able to attend any candidate nights this year, nor have I been to a City Council meeting for two or three years. I’m sorry to say I have never met Steve Gregory or Pamela Avila. I have no recent personal insights about any of the council candidates. I was just surprised that the farthest-back losing candidate was appointed to the vacant council seat.

Picanco not only had the most votes of any losing candidate, he also certainly has lots of city government experience. He was also a member of regional and county boards. Those memberships may now go to officials from other cities.

Avila was only six votes behind Picanco and was literally hundreds of votes ahead of Gregory. Some people may think Paso Robles is overdue for a city councilwoman again.

But our elected representatives have made their decision about a new councilman. So let’s get behind them and him and our city.

This story was originally published December 4, 2014 at 10:39 AM with the headline "A surprise move by the Paso Robles City Council."