Linda Ryno's first vote as a member of the Ceres City Council came Monday evening in the form of a "no" on the reappointment of Hugo Molina as a Ceres Planning Commission member.

Molina's current term expired Dec. 31 and the city needed to fill a new four-year term to expire in 2017.

Ryno asked if there were other applicants and if there was a notice published in the Ceres Courier to advertise for applicants. Mayor Chris Vierra replied no to both questions. That prompted Ryno to ask why, to which Vierra replied "at this point I felt that Planning Commissioner Molina was doing a good job and I wanted him to continue to utilize him."

Ryno was the lone dissenter in a 3-1 vote to reappoint Molina.

Molina was a challenger in the last council race in which he was pitted against Ken Lane and Ryno. Molina lost the council race but will serve another four years on the Planning Commission.

After the meeting Ryno explained that her no vote was not political axe-grinding but about allowing others to be considered.

"In the past, the city has advertised even if a sitting commissioner wanted to continue," said Ryno. "I had three people tell me of their interest during my precinct walking and asked how they would apply. Silly me, I told them to watch the Courier's public notices as well as the city's website."

In other action on Monday the council approved the purchase of two trucks from Ford Trucks for the public works department and three Chevy Tahoes from Winner Chevrolet for Ceres Police Department use. The police vehicles replace three cruisers and one is a four-wheel drive.

Police Chief Art deWerk said the department had few if any four-wheel drive vehicles and that such a vehicle is needed on occasion.

The council also voted to consign four used horse saddles from the now-defunct police equestrian unit.