43 people applied to be on Tacoma City Council. How will the vacant position be filled?

The process to select a new member of the Tacoma City Council has started.

Applications to fill an at-large position closed last week. Forty-three applications were submitted. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the council trimmed those down to 24 candidates.

Mayor Victoria Woodards congratulated the 24 candidates and extended her gratitude to those who applied.

“The council is very pleased with the fact that there were 43 residents who actually took the time to apply, who wanted this job,” she said during the meeting.

The open position comes after Conor McCarthy resigned June 22 after serving as a council member since 2015.

City Council voted to change the process of how it will select the at-large position 7 member.

The council, including the mayor, selected eight applicants each from the list of 43. Applicants who live outside the Tacoma city limits or filed after the noon deadline on July 7 were excluded. The selected 24 applicants will be given three minutes to make a presentation in-person or virtually to council at the July 19 evening council meeting.

At the July 26 study session, the council will go into executive session to discuss the qualifications of the applicants, and at the council meeting that night, the council will select its four finalists. Woodards said the council could decide to change the number of finalists, but the council members would need to debate in order to increase or decrease it from four.

At the Aug. 2 council meeting, the council will interview the finalist for up to 20 minutes with the first two minutes for introductions and the last minute for closing.

At the Aug. 9 study session, the council will go into executive session to discuss the qualifications of the finalists. Then at the evening meeting, the council will vote to decide the new council member. Going in alphabetical order, the first finalist to receive five votes — a majority — from the council would be chosen as the next City Council member for the at-large district 7 position.

The new council member will be sworn in on Aug. 16. The timeline of the selection process could be modified, Woodards said.

Woodards said the new alternative process of filling the vacant council seat would be “very open and transparent.”

“We felt like that process wasn’t broad enough and didn’t offer enough opportunity to those candidates who submitted their application to fully be considered,” she said.

The rule suspension is only for filling McCarthy’s vacant seat.

Rule 16, the rule for filling council vacancies and approved extended leave of absence, was suspended to allow for the new process. Rule 16 states that if more than 10 people applied for the open position, the council would reduce the number to nine. The finalists would be interviewed for eight minutes to present their credentials and answer questions from council members. The council could go into executive session to discuss the qualifications, but interviews, deliberations, nominations and vote would be conducted in an open public meeting. The mayor would ask for nominations to narrow down the applicant pool. The council then would deliberate and conduct a roll-call vote in alphabetical order until a nominee receives a majority vote of the council members.

Deputy mayor Catherine Ushka said at Tuesday’s meeting the new process allows more opportunity for the public and council to consider the candidates.

The 24 candidates selected are Gwendolyn “Anne” Artman, Evan Brazitis, Andrea K. Capere, Maricres Valdez Castro, Silong Chhun, Alexandra Corrigan-Luke, Sean Dannen, Olgy Diaz, Negar “Natalie” Ghayoumi, Jon M. Higley, Sara Irish, Andre Jimenez, Carlos D. Lugo-Gonzalez, Yvonne McCarty, Pat McGregor, Korbett Mosesly, Patricia A. Perkins, J. Manny Santiago, Corwin Ray Scott, Valentine Smith, Kimber Starr, Heidi Stephens, Craig Vialle and Tisha Marie “TishaMarie” Wosencroft.

The new council member’s term will expire at the end of 2023.