{"id":1843,"date":"2011-09-27T23:24:07","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T06:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2011-10-24T13:32:29","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T20:32:29","slug":"new-city-council-member-sandra-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2011\/09\/27\/new-city-council-member-sandra-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"New City Council member: Sandra Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sandra<\/a>
New Council member Sandra Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER \u2013 Sandra Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of the University of the Antelope Valley, will be Lancaster\u2019s new City Council member, occupying the seat recently vacated by Sherry Marquez, who resigned earlier this month due to family matters.<\/p>\n

Johnson was one of three women on the short list of candidates that Mayor R. Rex Parris announced last week. In a news release issued September 22nd<\/sup>, Parris said he was considering Johnson, Air Force Veteran Cassandra Harvey and former Criminal Justice Commission member Sandy Smith.<\/p>\n

At the City Council meeting Tuesday, the Mayor said he had received public comments for the past two weeks as to which of the three ladies he should appoint. He said, though all three ladies were extremely qualified, he had chosen Johnson because the other two candidates did not have the time required for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, due to job commitments, they\u2019re unable to devote the amount of energy that is required to be a City Council person,\u201d Parris said.<\/p>\n

\"Cassandra<\/a>
Cassandra Harvey will be appointed to the City's Redevelopment Agency at the next Council meeting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While nominating Johnson to the Council, Parris attempted to simultaneously nominate Cassandra Harvey to the City\u2019s Redevelopment Agency, saying Harvey would sit as a member of the Redevelopment Agency, but not on the Council.<\/p>\n

City officials reminded Parris that an appointment to the Redevelopment Agency was not on the agenda. The Mayor ultimately decided to table Harvey\u2019s nomination until the next meeting, and proceed with Johnson\u2019s appointment to the City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat obviously means that Sandra Johnson would not sit on the Redevelopment Agency,\u201d Parris said.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s nomination sailed through the Council with no dissenting votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Sandra Johnson has a proven track record of being a successful business woman,\u201d said Vice Mayor Ron Smith. \u201cAnd when it comes to economic growth and creating jobs, I think that\u2019s what we need here in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSandra Johnson is a perfect match for this City Council and what she\u2019ll add to it at this time,\u201d said Council Member Marvin Crist.<\/p>\n

Members of the community had other ideas about who would be the perfect match for the City Council. During the public comment period before the vote, several members of the community gave their take on who should occupy the vacant Council seat.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Helm urged the Council to consider diversity — not based on looks, but based on opinions and ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would strongly encourage you to appoint someone who doesn\u2019t work for you and doesn\u2019t attend your specific church,\u201d Helm said. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to get viewpoints from what you might see as outsiders, but I see as part of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a lengthy speech to the Council, Lancaster resident Michael Rives outlined his plans for the city and urged the mayor and Council members to consider him for the seat. Speaker David Grajeda also urged the Council to consider Rives. And speaker David Abber admonished the mayor for not considering any male candidates for the Council seat, citing gender discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we deserve some answers on why you continue to discriminate,\u201d Abber said. \u201cYou have divisive ways about who you want to put in here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parris said new Council member Sandra Johnson will be sworn in at the next City Council meeting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 Sandra Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of the University of the Antelope Valley, will be Lancaster\u2019s new City Council member, occupying the seat recently vacated by Sherry Marquez, who resigned earlier this month due to family matters. Johnson was one of three women on the short list of candidates that Mayor R. Rex Parris […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}