By Khalida Sarwari
Mayor Mike Kotowski and Councilman Jason Baker were appointed to serve another four years on the Campbell City Council, saving the city $51,000 it would have spent on a formal election process.
The council voted unanimously to appoint Kotowski and Baker to serve through 2016. The incumbents abstained from voting.
The incumbents were the only candidates to file; City Clerk Anne Bybee confirmed that no one else filed nomination papers for the two vacant council seats by the Aug. 10 deadline.
Both Kotowski and Baker were seeking their second and final four-year terms.
“The council did the right thing,” said Baker following a brief special meeting on Aug. 21. “It was in the best interest of the city.”
Kotowski, 71, said he is running again to fulfill an objective he had when he ran for office in 2008.
“I ran in the middle of an economic disaster so that kind of slowed down all the things I wanted to do for the city,” said Kotowski.
Now that the city is more financially aligned, he said he wants to revive the city’s Youth Advisory Commission, a forum to give high school students a voice. The commission disappeared sometime in the early 1980s after a promising start in 1970 by the late Rusty Hammer, a former mayor and councilmember.
Other areas Kotowski said he would focus on in the coming term include the Hacienda Avenue “Green Street” project and exploring the possibility of adding a venue to hold large-scale concerts.
Baker, 40, said he would make the city’s long-term financial stability and safety in terms of emergency preparedness the focus of his second term. Balancing the city’s growth while maintaining its “small town feel” is another challenge he anticipates taking on.
“I look forward to getting back to work,” Baker said.
The deadline for a decision on whether to hold an election for the incumbents was Aug. 23, which is 75 days before the election. The state’s elections code mandates that if no one has been appointed by the 75th day, the election must be held.
The cities of Los Gatos, Saratoga and Los Altos Hills similarly have incumbents up for re-election who are running unopposed for the vacant seats on their city councils.
Campbell will save $51,000 as council appoints Kotowski and Baker to four-year terms
