{"id":67629,"date":"2025-11-24T14:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T14:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/67629\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T14:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T14:28:07","slug":"more-orange-county-towns-grapple-with-city-council-vacancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/67629\/","title":{"rendered":"More Orange County Towns Grapple With City Council Vacancies"},"content":{"rendered":"

A handful of Orange County cities have grappled with recent city council vacancies \u2014 raising questions over leaving the decision to voters or going through an application process before elected officials fill the gap.<\/p>\n

Council members in Cypress and Aliso Viejo scrambled to fill city council vacancies ahead of the holiday season after elected officials in both cities resigned unexpectedly, cutting their terms short and leaving a seat empty on their respective councils.<\/p>\n

In Cypress, council members almost flipped a coin to make a decision after going back and forth among the seven candidates.<\/p>\n

In Aliso Viejo, council members decided to not open an application process, instead making nominations without advertising the vacancy to the public through applications.<\/p>\n

Both cities filled the vacancies through appointment. Instead of holding a special election, which often comes with a price tag of several hundred thousand dollars, city officials decided to fill their vacancies through a nomination and appointment process that requires a majority council vote before the new member can be sworn in.<\/p>\n

But the two cities went in opposite directions on how a new council member got appointed.<\/p>\n

While Cypress officials decided to open an application period to make nominations and decide the appointment, city council members in Aliso Viejo directly nominated \u2014 and appointed \u2014 a resident who ran for city council and lost seven years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cypress Holds Public Application Process\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cypress\u2019s vacancy opened last month when Councilmember Scott Minikus left his District 5 seat early to take an out-of-state job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of calling a special election, the city council voted to fill the seat by appointment, citing cost, timing and state election deadlines. Staff opened an application period and drew 16 candidates citywide.<\/p>\n

At the Nov. 10 meeting, council members narrowed that list to seven people whom they interviewed during the next meeting on Nov. 19: Anne Mallari, Bill Wostenberg, Candi Kern, Claudia Nessary, Frances Marquez, Quintin Bentley and Rachel Strong Carnahan.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 19, city officials voted 3-1 to appoint Bentley, a relative newcomer to the city, to fill Minikus\u2019s term that expires in November 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bentley is currently serving his first term on the city\u2019s recreation and community services commission. Councilmember Bonnie Peat voted against his appointment because she said he\u2019s been absent from too many commission meetings.<\/p>\n

Originally from Seattle, Bentley has lived in Cypress for about four and a half years with his wife and children. He\u2019s currently a special education teacher at Cypress High School and also a sports coach for youth in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cCypress is home. It\u2019s where my family\u2019s roots run deep, and it\u2019s where I want to continue building a bright future for the next generation,\u201d he said during his interview with the council at the Nov. 19 meeting.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cypress Civic Center on April 17, 2022. Credit: AYDA TUNCAY, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Officials were split on the appointment decision, requiring multiple nominations and debating spending nearly $1 million on a special election before three council members could agree on a single candidate.<\/p>\n

Council members even discussed flipping a coin in order to make a decision \u2014 but after more debate, officials agreed to appoint Bentley.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a newcomer, we really don\u2019t know what to expect from him, but he does have quite a bit of experience working with communities,\u201d Councilmember Kyle Chang said at the meeting. \u201cHe\u2019s quite involved with the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmember Leo Medrano didn\u2019t originally support Bentley\u2019s nomination, changing his mind later in the meeting in the name of compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in compromise,\u201d he said before nominating Bentley. \u201cWe need to move this forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cypress council members also discussed appointing Mallari or Marquez, both former city council members in Cypress, but a majority of the council did not support either of their nominations.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, Mallari and Marquez have both been entangled as part of a lawsuit with the city. Marquez is the plaintiff in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the city and multiple city leaders: Minikus, Mallari, Peat and former City Manager Peter Grant.<\/p>\n

In that case, Marquez alleged harassment and retaliation for her support for changing Cypress\u2019s election system \u2014 after threats that accused the city\u2019s at-large system of diluting minority voting power. She also claimed that Minikus, Mallari, Peat and Grant unlawfully censured her and adopted policies that retaliated against her.<\/p>\n

[Read: Cypress City Councilwoman Sues Colleagues, Alleging Harassment After Voting Rights Lawsuit<\/a>]<\/p>\n

During Marquez\u2019s interview with the council during the Nov. 19 meeting, she said her lawyers have notified the city about settling the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to putting any past conflicts behind,\u201d she said. \u201cIn fact, I want to say that my lawyers have sent a letter this morning to the city\u2019s attorney accepting the city\u2019s counteroffer to settle the current lawsuit, subject to some clarification on the terms that our lawyers will work out very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Former Councilmember Frances Marquez speaks to council members during her interview at the Nov. 19 council meeting. Credit: City of Cypress livestream<\/p>\n

Marquez\u2019s federal lawsuit came after city officials agreed to pay over $835,000<\/a> to settle a California Voting Rights lawsuit accusing the city\u2019s at-large voting system of disenfranchising minority voters and calling on the city to switch to district voting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an at-large voting system, residents can vote for as many candidates as open seats. That means if there are three open city council seats, then all the city\u2019s residents can vote for three different candidates.<\/p>\n

In a district-based voting system, the city is separated into zones. With this method, residents can only vote for the candidate who\u2019s looking to represent the district that they live in, with the candidate also having to reside in the district.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Cypress council members voted 4-1 to reject a letter demanding the switch to district elections. \u200b\u200bMarquez was the dissenting vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Afterward, the council majority voted to censure<\/a> her twice in that same year.<\/p>\n

Aliso Viejo Fills Vacancy, Forgoing Applications<\/p>\n

Aliso Viejo city leaders also recently grappled with how to fill a council vacancy \u2014 ultimately deciding against a public application and interview process that Cypress used to fill its vacancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Sept. 19, Councilmember Richard Hurt resigned from his District 3 seat on the Aliso Viejo City Council.<\/p>\n

During their meeting on Oct. 15, council members voted 3-1 to appoint Garrett Dwyer to fill Hurt\u2019s vacant seat. He was sworn in and took up the council position during that meeting.<\/p>\n

Dwyer previously ran for city council in 2018. Of the five candidates that year, Dwyer came in fourth place with 4577 votes \u2014 about 15%. Current Mayor Tiffany Ackley won the election that year with 9626 votes, about 32%, cast for her.<\/p>\n

Ackley voted against Dwyer\u2019s nomination because she said the council should have opened the vacancy for applications instead of deciding to nominate and appoint a replacement.<\/p>\n

\"\"Aliso Viejo City Hall on Nov. 28, 2023. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC.<\/p>\n

During the previous council meeting on Oct. 1, Mayor Ackley asked the council to fill the vacancy by appointment and open an application period, but that effort failed due to a lack of support from her colleagues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, the council voted to conduct a nomination process, resulting in Dwyer\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

Two other residents, Jason Sams and Nina Linh, also asked council members to consider them for the appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m respectfully a no because I do think this should be open to applications,\u201d Ackley said on Oct. 15 when voting against Dwyer\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

During that meeting, she also said that the council\u2019s decision to nominate a new council member instead of opening applications \u201creally gave me a bad taste in my mouth about politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of the council supported Dwyer since he ran for office before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this district became open, I looked back at who has run in that district in the past,\u201d Councilmember Mike Munzing said at the Oct. 15 meeting. \u201cSeven years ago, Madam Mayor, when you ran, a gentleman ran as well. He was not victorious, but he was well known in the community and a solid resident, father, husband, hard worker and businessman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmembers Max Duncan and Tim Zandbergen also supported Dwyer\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that he did go through that vetting process prior and did have the courage to step up and put in tons of work to try to get elected, he would have my nomination too,\u201d Duncan said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Dwyer will serve the remainder of the District 3 council term, which is slated to expire in November 2026.<\/p>\n

Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A handful of Orange County cities have grappled with recent city council vacancies \u2014 raising questions over leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[26993,40201,163,165,164,2461,40202,40203,40204],"class_list":["post-67629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-aliso-viejo","tag-aliso-viejo-city-council","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-cypress","tag-cypress-city-council","tag-cypress-district-elections","tag-frances-marquez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67629","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=67629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}