Mayor Green, Former Councilman Valle Still in Running for Nadia Lockyer's County Seat

The battle for the vacant District 2 seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors has whittled down to four finalists following Tuesday’s meeting.

According to The Oakland Tribune, four applicants remain in the running after former District 2 supervisor Gail Steele withdrew her application.

Among those left vying for the position are Union City Mayor Mark Green, Tri-CED CEO and former Union City councilman Richard Valle, Newark Vice Mayor Ana Apodaca and political newcomer Sheryl Grant.

While local leaders Green and Valle are still being considered, the two are simultaneously running in other political races, leaving Apodaca the front-runner for the position, the Tribune reports. Grant, a technology sales executive, was described as lacking experience during Tuesday’s interview by the newspaper.

Green, Union City’s mayor since 1993 whose term expires this year, is also running for the 20th State Assembly District seat. Valle has a bid in for the 2012 Union City mayoral race.

The Board has until June 5 to make an appointment for the seat. However, whoever is appointed to the interim position will have to run for the seat in the November general election.

In his application for the county seat, Green said that if he advances in the State Assembly race following the June primary, then he will not seek election for the Board of Supervisors in November.

According to the Tribune article:

[Green] denied he was "office shopping" and said he might not have run for Assembly if the District 2 seat had opened up three months earlier instead of in April, when Lockyer resigned. He ran in 2010 against Lockyer.

Former Union City Councilman Richard Valle said he would abandon his ambition to become the mayor of that city, as well as his job as chief executive officer of Tri-CED Community Recycling, if the board selected him as interim supervisor.

He is a former board member of St. Rose Hospital, which nearly closed because of a financial crisis. But a long line of supporters spoke on his behalf Tuesday, citing his community service.

The District 2 seat became vacant last month when former District 2 Supervisor Nadia Lockyer after a highly covered bout of drug addiction, an extramarital affair and an alleged, unfounded assault in which she claimed her ex-lover attacked her.

District 2 consists of Newark, Union City, Hayward and a portion of Fremont and unincorporated Sunol.