{"id":49942,"date":"2025-11-12T18:59:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/49942\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T18:59:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:59:30","slug":"bakersfield-councilmember-reveals-cancer-battle-after-missing-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/49942\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield councilmember reveals cancer battle after missing meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 Bakersfield City Councilmember Ken Weir revealed Tuesday he has been battling cancer, explaining his extended absence from council meetings throughout the year.<\/p>\n<p>Weir, who represents Ward 3 covering a large portion of northeast Bakersfield, had been missing consecutive council meetings, prompting questions about his whereabouts.<\/p>\n<p>In a written statement released by the city Tuesday, Weir disclosed his health struggle for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For several months now, I have been undergoing medical treatment for cancer,&#8221; Weir said. &#8220;I thought my treatment\/recovery would allow me to return to my duties sooner than later. However, I have had several setbacks and I underestimated the treatments and the amount of recovery time needed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Weir expressed gratitude to his fellow council members and assured constituents their concerns are being addressed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I appreciate the patience of my council colleagues and have been assured by the City Manager that my constituent issues are being addressed and will continue to be handled in a timely fashion,&#8221; Weir said.<\/p>\n<p>The councilmember indicated he will return to meetings when his health permits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I will continue to stay updated on City Council issues and will attend meetings as my health allows,&#8221; Weir said. &#8220;I ask the public for your prayers and understanding during this time while I prioritize my health.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 Bakersfield City Councilmember Ken Weir revealed Tuesday he has been battling cancer, explaining his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,25934,155,153,152,32333,162],"class_list":["post-49942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-city-council","tag-bakersfield-downtown","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-ken-weir","tag-kern-county-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}