The Goldendale City Council is back to full strength after last night’s meeting. Councilors interviewed four people who expressed interest in serving. and appointed two of them to serve on the two vacant council seats. David Jones and Darlene Williamson were both sworn in after the council votes.
Originally the agenda called for the council to interview five applicants, but one was dropped due to unusual circumstances. Julie Buck had held council position number seven, which was left vacant when she moved away. Former council member Steve Johnston was the only person to file for that position by the May deadline, so will be the only person on the ballot in November. Since he will automatically win the seat then, he suggested that the logical thing for the council to do would be to appoint him now:
“To needlessly appoint someone temporarily short term that they can’t possibly keep would not be fair to that person, and would be a disservice to the citizens of the community.”
Mr. Johnston also declined to take part in the interview process, and councilors dropped him from consideration. They did appoint lifelong resident Darlene Williamson, who laid out her experience this way:
“I worked at KVH a lot of years and Rescue 7 Ambulance. I’m now down at White Salmon, at the hospital down there, and I probably volunteered on anything there was in Goldendale.”
Williamson will serve the few months until the term expires at the end of the year.
And position number five, which became open when Kevin Fieock resigned, went to David Jones, a longtime local grocer. He may have won the council over with his opening statement:
“First job interview I’ve had since I was 16 years old but I’ve conducted oh two or three hundred interviews, i reckon (laughter) so I’m on the other end here.”
Jones will serve through the end of 2023.