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Politics

Steve Miesen Appointed To Fill Vacant Chula Vista Council Seat

Steve Miesen is pictured in this undated photo.
10News
Steve Miesen is pictured in this undated photo.

Chula Vista has appointed a new council member to fill the seat left vacant when Mary Salas was elected mayor.

After days of debate and drama, the council appointed Steve Miesen to fill the position. Miesen is a division manager at Republic Services, a sanitation company. He is also the 2015 president of the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce. He will resign from the chamber to avoid any potential conflict of interest.

The council had eight candidates to choose from. Miesen said he realizes he was not everyone's first choice.

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"I recognize I am a bit of a compromise in some way, but I think, I see myself as a compromise in a very positive nature," Miesen told reporters shortly after being sworn in. "I've already said it. I'm nonpartisan. I'm not planning to run for election at the end of the period. I'll be very, very happy at the end of two years to say, 'Hey, I helped do something to lay the foundation to make the city of Chula Vista better' and if I can honestly say that, I'll be very pleased to go back to being the master 'garbologist' in town."

At one point on Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Salas called a 10-minute recess and stormed out of the meeting in frustration. On Tuesday night, she was ready to call it quits again and reschedule the meeting for next week.

"I don't think that there is any candidate in Chula Vista that I could offer that would satisfy some members of this council," Salas said.

That is when Deputy Mayor Pamela Bensoussan made a surprise motion.

"In the spirit of trying to solve the problem, I will move on to my third choice, which is Mr. Meisen," Bensoussan said.

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Mayor Salas said she was confident the council would come to an agreement and avoid a costly special election.

"I know that sometimes when we had these hard decisions to make that there can be tensions, but I always had trust in my council," she said.

Salas said it does not matter how they came to an agreement as long as they did.

"It didn't come easy, but you know, good things don't come easy," she said.