San Juan Bautista
– Longtime Mission City resident Edward Laverone has been
appointed to fill the final seat on the City Council.
San Juan Bautista – Longtime Mission City resident Edward Laverone has been appointed to fill the final seat on the City Council.
“He’s a good man for the job,” said Anthony Botelho, who represents San Juan Bautista on the county’s Board of Supervisors. “He has a lot of knowledge and background. We’re going to have a good, strong council in 2007.”
Mabel Jones, who said she’s lived in San Juan Bautista for 84 years, is also pleased with the council’s decision.
“It’s about time we got someone in there who knows about police work,” she said.
Public works employee Jeffrey Bagley was elected to the council in November, but declined to take his seat. City Manager Jan McClintock told the Free Lance that if Bagley had been sworn in, he would have lost his job in public works due to a conflict of interest.
In his application for the council, Laverone said he’s lived in the Mission City for “virtually my entire life.” He works as a captain with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, and has served on the San Juan Bautista Historical Society and as the city clerk. He is also a volunteer with the city’s fire department.
“He knows city hall, he knows the fire department and he knows the city,” Councilman George Dias said.
Dias added that Laverone’s biggest asset is the knowledge he’s gained in the sheriff’s department, where he managed more than 100 employees and millions of dollars in state and federal grants.
“It’s a big, big plus,” Dias said.
Laverone, for his part, said everyone who applied for the council was “very qualified.”
“I look forward to serving the city as best I can,” he said.
Laverone, then-Planning Commissioner Rick Edge and agriculture industry veteran Jolene Cosio applied in November to fill deceased Mayor Dan Reed’s seat. Edge was appointed to the council at that time, but Laverone and Cosio’s applications were reconsidered after Bagley declined to take his seat on Tuesday.
San Juan Bautista resident Jim Pereyra and former Councilman Chuck Geiger have both criticized the selection process. They argued that since Bagley never took his seat, the council should appoint Pereyra, who was next in the list of vote-getters – or at least open the process to new applications.
Dias and Edge both said they moved forward with the applications they’d already received because of the dearth of interested applicants for the planning commission and the council.
“I’m very proud of the way people of San Juan Bautista voted,” Dias said. “They showed us that they wanted change, and it’s now our job to do what the citizens told us.”
He also noted that the council has now found a place for everyone who applied for Reed’s seat – in addition to Edge and Laverone’s appointments to the council, Cosio has taken a seat on the planning commission.
Bagley was also appointed to the planning commission.
“I’m so excited about this council,” Dias said. “I’m actually looking forward to meetings now.”
Laverone echoed Dias’ enthusiasm.
“You’re going to see a council that works together,” he said. “We’re going to have our disagreements, but we’ll move past them. … I think you’re going to see a more professional council come out of this.”
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at (831) 637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
