POULSBO — A total of seven Poulsbo residents are competing for an open seat on the Poulsbo City Council. The seat, Position 3, is vacant because Mayor Becky Erickson, a former council member, legally became Poulsbo’s mayor Dec. 28. She was sworn in as mayor at the Jan. 6 council meeting.

The council members are tasked with picking the new council person to fill Erickson’s unexpired term.

Candidates will be interviewed during a public City Council work session at 9 a.m. Saturday in city council chambers.

They will be interviewed separately and all the candidates will be asked the same questions, said City Clerk Jill Boltz. The goal is for the council to pick Erickson’s replacement that day. The council also take more time for a decision if necessary, Boltz said.

Candidates will be restricted from entering the room while their competitors are being questioned.

Once the interviews are complete, the council will go into an executive session to discuss the candidates.

As state law requires, the council will reconvene its public meeting to cast its votes.

Boltz said the council is feeling the rush to get a new council person seated so committee appointments can be made.

In addition to the four hopefuls featured in the Jan. 1 edition of the Herald — Jeff Bauman, Wil Miller, Nikolaus Hoffman and Gary Nystul — three more candidates have applied:

• Catherine C. Nunes, a three-year resident of Poulsbo, earned a bachelor’s in economics and business from the College of St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1989. She is currently a contracts manager with AMEC Earth and Environmental Inc., in Jacksonville, Fla. She served on the 2008-09 North Kitsap School District Budget Committee.

  “I want to help balance Poulsbo. Our town has a unique character and I don’t want to lose that as we grow. I realize that there are no easy answers whether it’s growing through annexation or building (apartments or houses) downtown,” she wrote in her application to council members. “Someone needs to make the hard decisions and I’d like to be part of the process rather than sitting on the sidelines.
• James Thayer is a retired engineer who worked for Fort Lewis Public Works from 1986 to 2005. He moved to Poulsbo from Enumclaw in 2004. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. He currently serves on the Annexation Task Force on the city’s Planning Commission and previously served on the Poulsbo Design Review Board from February to October 2007.

  “I was a member or leader on numerous task forces and teams during my last several years before I retired,” he wrote in his application. “Serving as Commercial Activities team leader and team member of several management-level teams gave me experience in understanding, evaluating and improving organization wide processes.”

• Don Shannon Jr., a landlord, has lived in Poulsbo for more than seven years. He has associates’ degrees from Chalbot Community College, Hayward, Calif., and Edmonds Community College and a bachelor’s from San Jose State University.

  “I believe my strengths are many — tenacity, perseverance and the ability to get the job done — readily come to mind,” he stated in his letter to city council members. “However, I can mingle with individuals on many planes, or I can mix with highly placed members in academic/professional/or business environs.”

The council will review applications and make its decision in January. Deadline for applications was Dec. 30.