David Gorn resigns from HMB City Council

David Gorn announced Monday that he’s resigning immediately from Half Moon Bay City Council.  The city council as the option of appointing a replacement or holding an election for Gorn’s seat in November. Gorn, who was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Sid McCausland’s resignation, would have been up for re-election in November 2007.

"When I applied for the job seven months ago, I thought I could serve on the council and keep my a career afloat," Gorn told me.  Until his appointment to city council, Gorn worked as an independent producer and editor for National Public Radio. "The higher-ups at NPR decided on the side of being cautious," said Gorn. "They said they’d use me as soon as I was off the city council."

"I haven’t worked in the last seven months. I put my career on hold to serve on the city council, but I can’t put it on hold for another year and a half. I need to support my family." He noted that the stakes in this decision were not just immediate income, but the future of his career.

"This was really hard for me.  In most of decisions in my life, both outcomes would have been good. This was a matter of which kills me less." 

Gorn held off resigning until the completion of the vote on Measure S, the parcel tax.  He has been very active in the campaign. He was concerned that leaving his seat open could lead to the kind of conflict that was sparked by the planning commission appointments earlier in the year and that this would damage the campaign.  "But it’s still soon enough that it could go to an election in November,"  he says, although he doesn’t know what the city council plans to do to fill his seat.

Gorn says he thought he knew a lot about the community from being editor the Half Moon Bay Review, but that he has learned much more since joining the council and wants to apply it in the community.  He wants to work toward helping the schools, finding a permanent home for the Boys and Girls Club, parks, trails, and open space and other community projects.

"You have to do a lot of work to keep a place like this feeling the same over time," he said.