Council Decides to  to Interview Five of Thirteen

La Mirada~It's something you don't see often in La Mirada at a city council meeting, but then again, it's only the second time in history the city has had to appoint a new city council member.

Tonight council members openly deliberated, and ultimately decided, to have five "finalists" to choose from, to fill the vacated Susan Tripp seat, after 13 applied. 

Aside from time deadlines, there is no state law requiring how a council appoints a new council member.

At a special added-on study session meeting next Tuesday July 5th, public interviews will be held for the five who include: Attorney Paul Brown, Norwalk-La Mirada School Board Trustee Pauline Deal, LA County Director and La Mirada Public Safety Commissioner Edward Eng, Deputy Fire Chief and businessman, Michael Garcia, and business owner, Chris Pflanzer.

At the special meeting, each will be interviewed for approximately 20-30 minutes.

Two other applicants also received "mentions" from the panel-Luis Garcia, Robert Martin, and Phil Glenn.

As far as we know, the council will then decide who the new La Mirada City Councilmember will be, in time to participate in the July 19th regularly scheduled council meeting-and serve the remainder of the term until March 2013.

Local dignitaries in attendance at the meeting tonight included former council members Hal Malkin, Pete Dames, and Wayne Rew, with the latter speaking, and offering his views on the philosophy, traditional values, and the characteristics one must possess to be a La Mirada City Council member.

Photo: Chris Pflanzer and Pauline Deal await the word.

Bonus: Listen to Wayne Rew's comments here: http://twitvid.com/PVUFM