Two Environmental Planning Commission seats are due to turn over at the end of the year, but Mountain View’s City Council has postponed choosing replacements until after the Nov. 3 election. The 4-2 decision leaves four applicants waiting and could affect whether the city recruits for two openings or three.
The commission reviews land-use matters and recommends actions to the council. Its work can include citywide planning: a June 26, 2024, city agenda records the commission recommending Downtown Precise Plan amendments for council adoption.
The two seats whose terms end Dec. 31 are held by Bill Cranston and José Gutiérrez. At its October meeting, the council voted to defer appointments after Chris Clark raised the possibility that commissioner Paul Donahue could leave his seat if he wins a council race. Chris Clark, John McAlister, Alison Hicks and Ellen Kamei voted to delay; Mayor Emily Ann Ramos and Lucas Ramirez opposed it, Mountain View Voice reported.
Four people had applied for the two seats: Alex Amoroso, Elizabeth Conlan, Daniel Hulse and John Scarboro. The council’s next steps depend in part on the election. Mountain View Voice reported that if Donahue wins, the city would begin another recruitment period and consider candidates for all three seats; if he loses, Clark said, the city would not recruit again for the two openings. The account does not establish when appointments would be made after the election.
Council members disagreed over whether waiting was warranted. Ramirez argued that members could vote against candidates rather than delay the process; Ramos said the pause conflicted with her emphasis on civic participation and volunteer service. Kamei described the decision as a response to a recurring election-year problem of commissioners leaving to run for council, rather than a judgment about an individual applicant, according to Mountain View Voice.
Earlier decisions offer context, not a rule
The council has handled election-year appointments differently before. Mountain View Voice reported that two years earlier, the council reappointed an incumbent commissioner even though two commissioners were running for City Council. That episode is a precedent for comparison, but it does not determine how the council must handle this year’s vacancies.
A separate vacancy arose in 2025, when Clark resigned from the commission after winning a council seat. The council then appointed Tina Pham, whose term runs through the end of 2025, Mountain View Voice reported. That appointment adds another seat to address this year, but the current council has not yet said what it will decide after the election. The outcome will determine whether the city considers two vacancies or opens recruitment for a possible third.
