Council fills five San Jose Planning Commission vacancies in two voting rounds

The San Jose City Council held a special meeting on Monday to fill five vacancies in the city’s Planning Commission.

Meetings with the 14 candidates were split between Friday and Monday for live, in-depth interviews. Councilmembers asked the candidates about their previous experience and vision for San Jose.

The initial round of voting had four clear winners. Mariel Caballero, District 3 resident and former chair of the Planning Commission, won 10 out of 11 votes. George Casey, an associate attorney at the law firm Morrison & Foerster and a resident of District 10, received eight votes.

Deborah Torrens, District 2 resident and self-employed caretaker, had seven votes from the council. The final person to secure an appointment was Jorge Antonio Garcia, an account executive with Redwood Mortgage and a resident of District 8, with six votes. The four appointees will serve until 2024.

A three-way tie for the fifth vacant position made the City Council go into a second round of voting. In that round, Justin Lardinois, a District 1 resident and software engineer at Google, won with five votes.

Lardinois will be filling the vacancy of Melanie Griswold, who resigned on April 15. Lardinois automatically received the shorter term as he was the only appointee who did not win a majority vote in the first round. His term will end in 2022.