Westminster City Council met Dec. 13, 2025, to interview candidates for a vacancy on the council and later reconvened to deliberate and begin written roll-call voting under the council’s rules.

Mayor Carmelia opened the session with the Pledge of Allegiance and outlined a timed interview process that gave each applicant 30 minutes and a five-minute warning. The council said it would ask up to 12 questions, with the first round allowing each councilor one question and a rotating first-question order.

Candidates who spoke at the televised meeting included Kathy Stroud, Tracy Yang, a candidate identified by first name as Kathleen, Jessica Pollard, Parker Brown, Adam Barajas and Philip Romero. They followed a similar question set posed by council members and repeatedly cited housing affordability, core city services, human services and interjurisdictional cooperation as central concerns.

Kathy Stroud urged a focus on root causes of homelessness and suggested a more ‘‘logical’’ appointment process when a recent election produced a clear preference among voters: "If you're like 75% of the last seated person's vote, it should be automatic," she said, describing a charter amendment she thinks would honor voters' intent. Tracy Yang cited the city’s strategic plan and budget work in describing priorities and identified the city’s population and budget figures—"City of Westminster has 116,000 residents" and a 2025 adopted budget she described as about "$371,000,000" with roughly "45% for personnel"—as context for weighing trade-offs.

Other candidates emphasized complementary policy approaches. Parker Brown framed affordability to include childcare and transportation, noting examples of high childcare costs: "Childcare in our area is a huge problem... it's costing them $2,000 a month." Adam Barajas spoke about tax progressivity and zoning, arguing multi-use zoning and increased competition could help lower costs; Philip Romero highlighted local job creation, forecasting and regional collaboration as priorities.

After completing the interviews and adjourning for lunch, council reconvened at 1 p.m. to deliberate. Mayor Pro Tem Nirmala moved to select a person to fill the vacancy for the term expiring in 2027; Councillor Rosati seconded the motion. City staff read council Rules and Regs 7.3, which require written roll-call votes and a majority to finalize an appointment. The transcript shows council members casting written roll-call votes across multiple rounds.

The public transcript includes the motion, the roll-call procedure and the recorded votes but does not contain a clear, unambiguous announcement of the final appointed candidate within the provided segments. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:09 p.m. "With no other business before City Council, it is now 01:09PM and we are adjourned," the record shows.

Next steps: the council had scheduled deliberation and the written roll-call voting required by rule 7.3; any formal appointment, effective date or additional procedural steps were not plainly recorded in the transcript excerpts provided.