Rick Edge replaces seat left by Reed
Realtor and chairman of the San Juan Bautista planning
commission Rick Edge has been appointed to the city council. Edge,
who has served on the planning commission for nine years, beat out
two other candidates at a recent city council meeting in the
Mission town.
Rick Edge replaces seat left by Reed
Realtor and chairman of the San Juan Bautista planning commission Rick Edge has been appointed to the city council. Edge, who has served on the planning commission for nine years, beat out two other candidates at a recent city council meeting in the Mission town.
“He doesn’t have that learning curve that we could have to deal with with the other candidates,” said Arturo Medina, a current council member who voted in favor of Edge.
Edge saw an opportunity after Mayor George “Dan” Reed died Nov. 2 following complications from a lung transplant. Reed had suffered from congenital lung disease for some time before the transplant attempt.
“Dan was doing a good job on the council and I wanted to see his work continued,” Edge said.
Before the death of his friend, Edge had hesitated to run for city council because he knew it would be a much bigger time commitment.
“This will be a lot more time out of my month,” he said. “But the city – it’s not at a crossroads – but it has a lot of serious projects going on.”
Like the other applicants, Edge had not run in the recent general election for San Juan city council.
“After the last election, we had a shortage of good candidates and I figured maybe I needed to step forward and help out if I could,” Edge said.
It is not unusual for candidates who have not run in an election to step forward to fill in a vacant spot by appointment.
“A lot of times people aren’t interested in going through the stress of the election, but yet they are qualified to serve the community,” said Jan McClintock, San Juan city manager.
Medina agreed with McClintock.
“It has a lot to do with when you run an election – you’ve seen the type of elections some people run,” Medina said, referring to some of the negative campaigning around the county. “Some people are leery of that type of campaign.”
The council members who voted in Edge’s favor believed he had plenty to qualify him for the position. His experience with county and city governments comes from a previous job as a reporter, Edge said.
“You get a sense of how government works,” he said. “I covered public meetings and school boards while I was a reporter.”
He served on school boards before applying to be a San Juan planning commissioner, positions appointed by the city council.
Edge won out over the other candidates for several reasons, though his knowledge of how government works was key, Medina said. None of the unsuccessful candidates for council applied for the appointed seat.
“He’s actually been involved in public meetings,” Medina said. “He knows the Brown Act law and is aware of the city’s general plan.”
Medina served with Edge as a planning commissioner before joining the city council.
“He’s very good at negotiating and bringing a solution to problems,” Medina said. “He works to a mutual benefit even if it means a little bit of compromise here or there.”
The council members present at the recent meeting appointed Edge unanimously, including Medina, Priscilla Hill and George Dias. Councilman Chuck Geiger was not present at the meeting.
When a city council position is vacant due to the death of a candidate, the state offers two options to fill the slot. The city council can appoint and swear in a new candidate within 30 days or they can hold a special election.
“They only had until Dec. 1 to make the selection of they would have been forced into a special election,” McClintock said.
Special elections are costly and take much more time than an appointment, Medina said.
“It would have been months,” Medina said. “At the meeting [where we appointed Edge] we only had three council members present. That’s not a good situation.”
Edge will serve out the two years remaining on Reed’s term. As he joins the council, he said he wants to work on the projects already set in motion, such as the water project.
“I appreciate the opportunity to help and hope to be able to contribute as much as Dan Reed,” Edge said. “He was a friend of mine and I am honored to replace him.”
Melissa Flores can be reached at [email protected].
