After strong finishes in earlier races and submitting her name for appointment to fill earlier vacancies on the Cypress City Council, Rachal Strong Carnahan has finally earned a seat on the dais.
Facing a 60-day deadline (Nov. 30) imposed by the City’s Charter to fill vacant Council seats, the four-member Council voted 3-1 to fill a vacancy only two days before the charter deadline.
Following a contentious and sometimes tense meeting in the Council Chambers, (Strong) Carnahan emerged victorious, with Mayor David Burke, Mayor Pro-Tem Leo Medrano, and Council member Kyle Chang voting in favor of appointing her, as Bonnie Peat, who favored former Mayor Anne Mallari or former School Board President Candi Kern, voted against.
“I want to lead with honesty, fairness, and approachability,” Carnahan told the Council during the special session of the Council held on Friday, Nov. 28. “I want residents to feel heard,” she said.
Essentially, the vote for Carnahan remained the same as the meeting on November 19, with Burke and Medrano supporting her. However, Chang, who had previously favored former Council member Frances Marquez, agreed this time to give Carnahan the third vote, thereby awarding her the open seat.
“After listening carefully to residents and reflecting on the needs of this city, I decided to change my vote,” said Chang.
Chang said he respected Carnahan’s background as a “local businessperson and previous city commissioner” who has “been a staple of the community for many years.”
“Her strong commitment to providing services and programs for our diverse community will inspire thoughtful updates to our own services and programs that will reflect the diversity of our city,” said Chang.
He added that her involvement with so many people in the community provides her with a unique perspective within the community. “She has her finger on the pulse,” he said.
Carnahan, who runs a growing creative enterprise in the city, said, “I’m not coming to this role from outside the city. I’m coming from right here as a place that I raise my children, where I work, and where I love this city as only a hometown girl can do,” she said.
The two-hour special meeting on the Friday after Thanksgiving was promoted by the withdrawal (resignation) of Quintin Bentley, whom Burke had nominated. Bentley withdrew after statements and qualifications he offered to the Council were challenged.
Mallari, a former Council member and Mayor, opened the open communications session of the meeting with harsh words for Burke and the current “ruling majority” for not properly vetting the candidates.
“City materials told the public that Bentley works as a special education teacher at Cypress High School,” said Mallari. “Council member Chang said publicly that he voted for Bentley because he believed that claim, but the claim was false,” she said
“Mr. Bentley wasn’t a random applicant. He was someone Mayor Burke personally brought into city circles, pushing him onto the Cypress Festival committee, advocating for him on the Recreation Commission, and listing him as one of his top picks for this Council seat,” she continued.
“When leaders stop doing diligence, when alliances matter more than qualifications, or when facts take a back seat to politics, this is what happens,” she said. Mallari said the city “deserves better than a majority that can’t be trusted to verify a resume, let alone lead a city.”
“What happened last week wasn’t just a mistake by Mayor Burke and the Council majority; it was a failure of judgment, a failure of leadership, and a public embarrassment for our city,” claimed Mallari.
Edwin Kraemer, one of the 16 candidates who submitted his qualifications for the commission but was not selected for an interview, went to the podium and used part of his allowed time to defend Burke and the Council.
Kraemer said mistakes do happen, but suggested criticism should not be directed at the Mayor or the Council, but rather, if anyone, at the interim city manager and city staff.
“If anybody is to blame, it would be the city manager for not vetting the resumes,” said Kraemer, and not Burke and the Council.
He equated Mallari’s words with “venom” and said, “I hear that venom coming back,” intimating that what the Council surely doesn’t need is a return to the acidic meetings of the past few years.
“Things fall through the cracks, but it doesn’t deserve venom,” said Kraemer.
The interim city manager, meanwhile, said city staff bore no responsibility either.
“The city only confirms basic eligibility requirements,” said Sean Joyce, the interim City Manager.
“We confirm their eligibility. We do not conduct background investigations, and in 31 years of service, I know of no such practice anywhere I’ve worked where that is the case,” he said.
Joyce said the eligibility of the 16 applicants were all confirmed and published. “They were available for public scrutiny,” he said.
Peat remained steadfast in her support for Mallari or Kern, saying the vacant seat required someone with “civic experience” who “can step in and not be disruptive.”
Carnahan has no prior governmental experience, said Peat, and she has many commitments related to her small business, the Council member said.
In addition, Peat said Marquez should be automatically disqualified because she filed a lawsuit against the city.
Burke responded that he liked Kern, and in fact, she was his second pick.
However, to disqualify Marquez for her lawsuit, in his view, deserves a broader understanding, said Burke. Moreover, he said it brings Mallari’s own actions while on the Council into question.
Among other issues, Burke said Marquez sued because the City Council, including Mallari, voted to suspend Marquez’s, a duly elected official, pay for her service.
“This ‘unprecedented action’ opened the city up for litigation,” said Burke, “and the meter is still running.”
Burke, an attorney, said he has exhaustively researched the issue, “and I could not find a single instance, in the history of California, where the Council members had voted to suspend one of their colleagues’ salaries.”
“We need to move away from the drama and attacks from previous councils,” he said.
For her part, Marquez said she was looking beyond the appointment and publicly announced her campaign for the District 5 Council seat in the 2026 elections.
“I bring to this role a lifetime of service and leadership rooted in this community, including service on the Cypress City Council,” she said. “I’m a tenured professor of political science and a former Congressional legislative director,” said Marquez.
Nevertheless, it was Carnahan who emerged victorious from this process to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of Scott Minikus.
Following the vote to award her the vacant seat, Carnahan thanked the Council, saying her priorities are clear.
“My priorities are clear, and they are grounded in responsibility,” she said, to include the following:
- Recruit and select an excellent city manager.
- Help pay down the pension debt while maintaining a balanced budget.
- Reimagine green spaces with teens in mind.
- Create places that keep teens engaged, safe, and connected.
- Continue building a city that values diversity and inclusion.
Carnahan will serve the remaining 12 months on the Council representing District 5 following former Council member Minikus’ resignation. - She was immediately sworn in after the adjournment of the special meeting.
- “I am excited to have such a well-respected local business owner joining the Council,” said Burke in a statement following the meeting. “Ms. Carnahan was the next runner-up when she ran for a Council seat in 2022, so I know she has support throughout the community. I’m looking forward to the energy and fresh ideas she will bring to the group,” he said.
Editor’s note: This article was updated from the print edition.