With two new inexperience members coming aboard the Ceres City Council, Councilman Bret Silveira was reappointed vice mayor of Ceres last week.
Also at the Jan. 9 meeting, members of the new council were assigned to represent the city on various committees and boards.
Mayor Javier Lopez explained that Silveira didn’t serve a full two-year term because he was appointed vice mayor in October 2021 after Couper Condit resigned eight months into her four-year term. Silveira has the most seniority among councilmembers, having been elected in November 2020. James Casey was elected in September 2021 and Daniel Martinez and Rosalinda Vierra were both elected on Nov. 8, 2022.
Silveira is charged with running meetings in the event the mayor is absent. He would also become mayor should Lopez leave office.
Mayor Lopez and Vice Mayor Silveira will retain their membership on the Ceres Christmas Festival Committee, City-Schools Committee, Concerts in the Park Committee, Fire Advisory Committee (contract for service), Local Emergency Planning Committee and StanCOG Policy Board (Lopez as member and Silveira as the alternate.)
Mayor Lopez also remains as Ceres’ representative on the County-City Selection Committee and the Executive Committee of the Central Valley Division of the League of California Cities.
Other appointments were:
• Surface Water Joint Powers Authority Board (SRWA) – Mayor Lopez and Silveira with Rosalinda Vierra as an alternate;
• Economic Development Committee – Mayor Lopez and Vierra;
• Ceres Partnership for Healthy Children – Vierra;
• Opportunity Stanislaus – Mayor Lopez;
• East Stanislaus Integrated Regional Water Management Program (ESIRWSP) – Silveira and Martinez ;
• Stanislaus Elder Abuse Prevention Alliance (SEAPA) – Casey;
• Airport Advisory Committee – A staff member is appointed but Casey volunteered as an alternate.
• Tuolumne River Regional Park Committee – Mayor Lopez and Martinez;
• West Turlock Sub-basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency (JPA) – Silveira (and Casey as an alternate);
• Stanislaus Homeless Alliance –Casey (Vierra as alternate);
• Whitmore House Preservation Committee – Mayor Lopez with Martinez as the alternate;
All members of the council serve on the former Stanislaus-Ceres Redevelopment Commission Successor Agency Board and the former Ceres Redevelopment Agency City Council Successor Agency Board.
There was also talk that if the city revives the Ceres Youth Commission that Silveira and Vierra be appointed as the council representatives to it.