Three of the 10 candidates vying for a spot on the Kennewick City Council have dropped out of the race.
Those withdrawing their names are Brian Bradford, a personal caregiver and past member of the Ben Franklin Transit citizen's advisory committee; Bill Monroe, an unemployed nuclear worker who served as a Mattawa councilman from 2000-06; and Raymond Hui, an attorney and member of the Kennewick Planning Commission.
The seven other applicants will be interviewed beginning at 9 a.m. today at a special council meeting at City Hall, 210 W. Sixth Ave.
The council is expected to choose its new member at the session and swear the person in. Whoever is chosen will have to win election in November to keep the seat.
The position is empty because former Councilwoman Sharon Brown stepped down earlier this year to join the state Senate.
The other council applicants are James Hempstead, a Richland fire battalion chief who lost the 2009 council election to Brown; Diane Crawford, an ordained minister/wedding officiant who also works in marketing and community outreach for Oasis Physical Therapy; Brad Beauchamp, who owns a construction/land development company, a mortgage company and rental properties throughout Benton County; Eduardo Pacheco, a master police dog handler for the Hanford Patrol who's spent 30 years at Hanford and is a former Kennewick reserve officer; Gregory Jones, the Department of Energy's Hanford site chief financial officer and vice chairman of the Kennewick Planning Commission; Johanna Davis, a school counselor in the Richland School District and volunteer Kennewick Parks and Recreation coach; and Jerry Kurtz, a health physicist for CH2M Hill.
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