Four Vying For Vacant Lake Elsinore Council Seat

Two more applicants have been selected as possible candidates to fill the vacant Lake Elsinore City Council seat.

Friday afternoon a memo from City Clerk Virginia Bloom confirmed that applicants Genie Kelley and Peter Weber have been added to the short list of possible candidates.

On Aug. 19, Rick Morsch and Jerry Carlos were also appointed to the short list.

The number of appointed applicants was increased to four this week after some residents complained during the Aug. 23 City Council meeting that the short list should include more names. (to read more about the Aug. 23 complaints.)

“These four applicants will be publically interviewed by the entire City Council for consideration of appointment to the vacant Council seat at the regular City Council meeting of Tuesday, September 13, 2011, to be held at the Cultural Center located at 183 N. Main Street, Lake Elsinore, CA, beginning at 7:00 p.m.,” Bloom wrote in the memo.

The applicants were appointed from a long list of 15 who were all publically interviewed on Aug. 19 by a City Council subcommittee comprised of council members Melissa Melendez and Brian Tisdale. ( to read more about the Aug. 19 interviews.)

Each of the four applicants has different career experience, but all have worked in public service.

Morsch, who has served on the city's planning commission since July 2010, owns an engineering firm and has lived in the city for eight years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Carlos, a retired Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputy and current coach for the Lake Elsinore Unified School District and Perris Unified High School District, owns his own company and has lived in the city for 12 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from the University of California, Riverside.

Kelley served on the Lake Elsinore City Council from 1995 to 2008 and is currently a teacher with the Lake Elsinore Unified School District. She has lived in the city for 27 years and holds a master’s degree in education and curriculum from Azusa Pacific University.

Weber served as the city’s treasurer from 2004 to 2008 and currently works as a manager with ReadyPac Inc. He has lived in the city for eight years and holds a master’s degree in accounting from California State University, Fullerton.

The four are vying for the seat left vacant when then-Mayor Amy Bhutta