The Oceanside City Council has appointed former Oceanside City, Manager Peter Weiss as the new mayor. Mr. Weiss will fulfill former Mayor Jim Wood’s term through 2020. Peter Weiss was Oceanside City Manager from 2007-2013 and was appointed part-time hourly extra help consultant assistant in 2016.
Council-member Jerry Kern said; “I understand about the election but the idea of having an election in November, that means the person doesn’t get seated until December. We go a whole year with that empty seat and there are a lot of things that need to be filled between now and December. I am in favor of an appointment. We will see if we can come to some kind of conclusion and if we can’t, we will go to some kind of election.”
Council-member Kern then made a series motions nominating each council member to the position. Three failed on 2-2 votes with the motion for Council-member Sanchez not receiving a second.
The council then began discussing several options including a special meeting prior to the next meeting in February to begin taking and reviewing applications. Towards the end of the discussion as agreement was close to being made, Council-member Kern was set to make a motion to approve the special meeting. Deputy Mayor Chuck Lowery asked ” Can we come back to that? I would like to make another suggestion for an appointment just to see if there is any interest. I want to make a motion that we appoint, for the rest of the mayors term, Peter Weiss to take his place. Then we would have someone who already knows what’s going on here, where to park, what time we do meetings and so on and then we can move on.”
The motion was seconded with Mr. Weiss being appointed to the position on a 3-1 vote. Council-member Sanchez was the lone no vote.
