Brentwood Appoints Former Public Works Director to Fill Vacant City Council Seat

On Tuesday, the Brentwood City Council voted to appoint former City of Brentwood Employee Balwinder Grewal to fill the vacant city council seat.

Grewal, the former City Public Works Director and City Engineer, will fill the seat held by Steve Barr who submitted his letter of resignation dated August 28, 2017 to the City Clerk, identifying September 8th as his last day as Vice Mayor. According to his resignation letter, he and his wife has sold their Brentwood home and have made the decision to relocate to far northern California.

In total, 11 residents applied for the vacant position–including Grewal.

• Janalyn Aubert
• John Fink
• Balwinder Grewal
• Douglas Hartsough
• Peter Jacoway
• Joseph Krissoff
• Mark Murray
• Russell Pitkin – during the process, he withdrew his application.
• Mark Stoiber
• Jamie Tobin
• Joseph Trebino

Prior to the candidate being given their 10 minutes to introduce themselves, describe why they should be selected to fill the vacant seat, and provide the City Council with any additional information that they feel relevant, the Council heard public comments.

During Public Comments, Rocky Osborn spoke in support of John Fink.

“I’ve not met a man with more integrity, more honesty and willingness to volunteer to help people. He is always volunteering for this cause or that cause, the city council could not do any better than having a man like John Fink on the city county. He was also the next highest vote getter and that should have some weight,” said Osborn.

Rick Lemyre also spoke in support of John Fink while thanking all 11 applicants who wanted to serve the city. He also highlighted how he knew most of the candidates and what they were like.

““I’ve known many for a long time, they are my friends, having been around as long as I have been, I have a lot of insight into a number of them. Two of these men did stand for an election,” explained Lemyre. “One of those men was chosen by the voters as the runner up to the election. It’s a one-year seat, I think it’s important for the person to hit the ground running and it’s important to give the voters in the election a voice.”

In fact, since Barr’s resignation, many residents have spoken out in favor of Fink both at the City Council meetings and by sending the council letters of support. During the election, Fink was the runner up after gathering 19.79% of the voter (6,598 votes).

Each candidate was then provided 10-minutes to speak — click here for applications.

(Note – since Grewal was appointed, focusing on his presentation only)

Grewal stated on his application that in 2015, after 25 years of public service, he retired from the City of Brentwood where he served as the Director of Public Works/City Engineer for the past 10-years. He noted that during his career, he became familiar with most aspects of local government and applicable State laws, and has knowledge of City programs, operations and finances. He also touted his relationships with local agencies such as the school districts, Contra Costa County and the Transportation Authority.

On why he wanted to serve on the council, he explained that he had a desire to help guide the City for long-term sustainability and fiscal stability noting his passion for furthering economic development strategies and increase local employment opportunities. He had a desire to enhance the quality of life such as community facilities, parks and public safety. He was also interested in using his knowledge of City infrastructure and operating with the upcoming rate study, development projects and analyzing financial conditions and resources.

“Being that this council position is only for the remaining one year term, I think it is important to select someone who is already well researched in local rules, policies, and programs. I have over 32-years in private and public services, with 25-years of dedicated to public service,” said Grewal while further highlighting his experience and knowledge.

Vice Mayor Joel Bryant asked Grewal if he was interested in running for re-election, or only interested in serving for the 1-year through the appointment.

Grewal explained with only a 1-year term, they needed someone with experience and could hit the ground running.

“Will I be running for council, at this time, I will say I am hear to make this transition period so I can help the city and work with staff and council so that no time is lost and training and working with other council members and making decisions,” said Grewal. “if I am selected and after I have done this, after 1-year, that is the time I will be making the decision. I wont say no, that is the time I will make the decision.”

Councilwoman Karen Rarey stated they have a lot of things coming up and they needed someone who is well versed in what the City was doing, familiar with what is going on in the city because of the learning curve.

“I think it’s important we look at applicants who are well versed in what is going on right now in our city,” said Rarey.

Councilwoman Claudette Staton explained how it was a difficult decision because of the great candidates.

“Listening to all the candidates, I think its going to be interesting to see what happens in the end,” said Staton. “I think we need someone that has experience and who loves the city, which is all of you.”

Vice Mayor Bryant thanked all the applicants.

“The level of care and integrity and concern is very refreshing. I have lived in some communities where it was difficult to get people of quality to be interested in sacrificing their time.  Time from their families, time from their job,” said Bryant. “One thing that I think was essential, was there was a lot of good ideas that were brought forward, and I had a lot of what I consider good ideas when I ran and when I first started on council one of the first things I learned was that there are reasons, legally, financially, that cities and districts can and cannot do certain things. That is information that is a person is really going to need to have. I don’t want to put a person in a position for a short period of time and set them up for failure.”

He added that there were also comments made where a substantial amount of public information is out there on certain topics that the information hadn’t been tapped into.

“That is what I mean by saying we have these fresh ideas, but we also need to know that we have someone here who understands these difficult decisions we are in,” said Bryant. “This is a difficult decision.”

Mayor Bob Taylor stated he didn’t like the word “interim” because if you were going to sit in the seat, you are full time until removed.

“The only thing I really want to caution the council here is we really have to work together as a team. I do not care for dissension on a council. It harms the city the council is on. It really clouds what goes on. I don’t want to walk into a council meeting as mayor and my gut churn because I don’t know what is going to happen or who is going to explode with what,” said Taylor. “It’s never happened with me on this council and I have gone through quite a few councils lately, but everybody seems to work together.”

The council then proceeded to vote and the selection of who would fill the vacant seat would occur when a candidate received 3-votes, which only took 1 round of voting.

Round 1 Voting:

• Bryant: Grewal
• Rarey:  Fink
• Staton: Grewal
• Taylor: Grewal
  

By a 3-1 vote, Grewal was selected and on October 24, the Brentwood City Council will adopted a resolution, the Grewal will be sworn into the City Council.

Agenda & Application Documents
To view the applications and see reasons why they applied, click here.