> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.raincrossgazette.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Council Moves to Restore Ward 6 Representation, Seating Hernandez on Three Committees - URL: https://www.raincrossgazette.com/council-moves-to-restore-ward-6-representation-seating-hernandez-on-three-committees/ - Published: 2026-09-02T12:00:09.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-02T18:50:08.000Z - Description: Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes's motion overturned a unanimous screening committee recommendation, handing the newly elected Ward 6 representative a committee chairmanship over more senior colleagues' objections. - Author: Micaela Ricaforte - Tags: City Hall Newly elected Ward 6 Councilmember Luis Hernandez will sit on three standing committees — chairing one of them — after the council voted Tuesday, Aug. 25 to adopt a revised committee roster. The move sidesteps a recommendation from the Mayor's Nominating and Screening Committee to keep the current rosters in place until new Ward 2 and Ward 4 council members are seated in January after the November election. Committee seats give council members a direct hand in shaping policy before it ever reaches the full council. Without a seat, Ward 6 residents would have no representative shaping early-stage discussion on issues directly affecting their neighborhoods. ### What the screening committee recommended City Council rules require standing committee assignments to be reconsidered after each election or council vacancy, and generally honoring senior members' preferences. The Mayor's Nominating and Screening Committee — made up of Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson and council members Philip Falcone and Chuck Conder — took up the question Aug. 11. The committee recommended leaving Perry's seats vacant on the Governmental Processes, Mobility and Infrastructure, and Safety, Wellness and Youth committees. Under that recommendation, those seats would stay open until January 2027, when the council reorganizes again following a Nov. 3 special municipal runoff election. The appointments approved by the City Council are not temporary appointments, according to City Clerk Donesia Gause. However, the appointments remain in effect until the Council’s next reorganization, which is anticipated to occur in December or January following the outcome of the runoff election, according to Gause. ### What the council did instead The council didn't take that advice. At Tuesday’s meeting, Hernandez first asked to substitute for Council member Steven Robillard at an Aug. 31 special Housing and Homelessness Committee meeting — where an item involving the proposed conversion of two hotels into affordable senior housing units in his ward will be considered. That request passed unanimously without objection. Hernandez then asked to be permanently appointed to [Perry's](https://www.raincrossgazette.com/ward-6-councilmember-jim-perry-resigns-citing-family-opportunity/) three vacated committee seats, arguing filling the vacancies wouldn't cost any other member their existing seat. "I don't understand how it's usurping any of the seniority of any of the other council members,” he said. “It's merely allowing me to sit on or take the previous council member's place on those committees until the next election where the council members will then have the ability to choose their committees." He added, "The other council members are already on committees and this will leave a vacancy on those committees and Ward 6 won't be represented on any of these committees." Falcone pushed back, saying the request would let Hernandez leapfrog more senior council members — including himself, Robillard and Sean Mill — for committee assignments governed by seniority rules. That set off a broader debate over what the charter actually requires. Council member Clarissa Cervantes noted that under the city charter, every council member must serve as chair, vice chair or member on three committees — and Hernandez, as things stood, wasn't seated on any. Rather than accept that outcome, Cervantes moved to adopt a different roster — a "proposed list" the clerk's office had prepared earlier, incorporating council members' stated committee preferences alongside seniority rankings. That list places Hernandez as vice chair of the Economic Development Committee, a member of the Finance Committee and chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee. The reshuffle extended beyond Hernandez. Cervantes gave up her Housing and Homelessness chairmanship — becoming a member instead — but picked up the Land Use chairmanship, formerly held by Mill, along with vice chair of Governmental Processes and a seat on the Mayor's Nominating and Screening Committee. Mill moved from Land Use chair to member while gaining the chairmanship of Safety, Wellness and Youth, another seat Perry had held. Robillard lost his Housing and Homelessness member seat but picked up a member seat on Safety, Wellness and Youth. Falcone added the Mobility and Infrastructure member seat he described as “highly sought-after,” without giving up any of his existing assignments. Cervantes's motion also held off on filling any of the city's regional organization and joint powers authority appointments — such as the March Air Reserve Base Joint Powers Commission or the Western Riverside Council of Governments — until the new council is seated in January. Those seats had also gone unfilled under the screening committee's status-quo recommendation. The motion passed unanimously, effective immediately, and the council separately withdrew Hernandez's earlier one-meeting substitution as no longer necessary. [Neither the Ward 2 nor the Ward 4 race was decided outright](https://www.raincrossgazette.com/council-swears-in-hernandez-to-represent-ward-6-appoints-interim-city-manager/) in the June primary, sending both to the Nov. 3 runoff. In November, Gracie Torres and Aram Ayra will face off for [the Ward 2 seat Cervantes is vacating to run for state Assembly](https://www.raincrossgazette.com/the-2026-city-council-races-are-set-heres-whos-running/). In Ward 4, incumbent Chuck Conder faces challenger Rich Vandenberg.