The city of Dublin robbed Peter to pay Paul last week, filling the vacant mayor’s position by creating a vacancy on the City Council.
Michael McCorriston was appointed as the city’s mayor by unanimous 4-0 council vote, including his own. He gave up his City Council seat to accept the position, leaving a new hole for the council to fill.
Applications for the seat will be accepted until 5 p.m. Wednesday. The brief questionnaire can be found at dublin.ca.gov/cityclerk. Candidates will be considered at the City Council meeting on June 18. Eligible candidates must be Dublin residents who are registered to vote.
Outgoing Mayor Melissa Hernandez formally resigned earlier in the day. She left the role with just months until her term’s end after being appointed in May to the BART Board of Directors.
Hernandez was elected mayor in 2020 after a stint on the City Council. She thanked councilmembers, staff and the community for their contributions during her time as mayor. She said it was appropriate that her tenure ended where it began as an interested citizen, at the public comment podium.
“Being your mayor has meant so much to me,” Hernandez said. “I have worked diligently to not only accomplish as much as I could during my tenure, but also to actively learn from and engage with many communities and committees that I’ve served,” she said.
The City Council opted to appoint a mayor rather than hold a special election because the position is already on the ballot in November. City councilmembers Jean Josey and Kashef Qaadri agreed not to nominate themselves for the temporary role to keep an even playing field going into the fall election.
McCorriston said he saw no need to look outside the council for Hernandez’s replacement, who would only serve for about seven months before a new mayor is seated. But with all agreeing that neither Josey nor Qaadri should be appointed, McCorriston and Vice Mayor Sherry Hu were left as the only options.
“We’ve worked together functionally,” McCorriston told his fellow councilmembers. “We have our differences of opinions, but you know, we have what it takes. We should be focusing on one of us here,” he said.
Qaadri made the motion for McCorriston to take on the role, which was seconded by Josey and supported by all council members. He was formally sworn in following the vote.
McCorriston is a former finance professional who was first elected to the council in 2020. He has a bachelor’s degree in business finance from San Jose State University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of San Diego.