Stephen Dresser will return to the Lathrop City Council.

He was appointed Monday during a special session, with the vote for the provisional seat being a unanimous 4-0 vote.

Mayor Paul Akinjo and Councilmember Diane Lazard had initially favored appointing Dresser, who unsuccessfully ran for one of the two seats during the Nov. 5 election.

Minnie Diallo and Vice Mayor Jennifer Torres-O’Callaghan, in effort to make it a “transparent” process, favored asking to interview the candidates – Paul Camarena, Mansoor Fazel, Fadwah Majid, Padma Mariam, Susan Zaca, and Dresser – for the vacancy that occurred when Akinjo was voted mayor, replacing longtime Mayor Sonny Dhaliwal, who was successful in his campaign in becoming the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors District 3 representative.

Majid, who teaches Political Science in the Bay Area, withdrew her application early on during the questioning part of the process.

The candidates were asked their reasons for running for the two-year provisional seat along with some important issue or challenges facing the city, visions of Lathrop in the next 10 years, and referral items they might consider bringing before council, if selected.

The questioning process was whittled down from eight to four questions.

All agreed that the City of Lathrop was divided between east and west – the old part versus the new parts of town such as River Island community, for example – growth, and the physical barriers consisting of freeways, rivers, and bridges as contributing to such divisions. Unifying that would be the challenge.

“I’ve always had a deep desire to run for council,” said Camarena, who also operates his own Podcast on Lathrop. He ran for mayor during the recent election.

Fazel opted not to run for the seats currently occupied by Diallo and Torres-O’Callaghan. “I’m not a political person – (and) I had no qualms with the incumbents,” he noted.

Mariam was motivated by the vacancy as “an opportunity of interest.”

Zaca, who is knowledgeable about city planning – her degree is from UC Berkeley – believes that she can provide additional voice that might be of benefit to the city.

As for Dresser, he was part of the planning of Lathrop, with city moving from agriculture to its current development. In his 30 years in the community, he was a three-term councilmember, worked on various committees, and volunteer work that included the library task force.

His experience was a factor in his selection to the provisional council seat.

“My first two years was a learning curve,” said Diallo, who referenced Dresser’s knowledge of the post in making her motion of his selection, with Lazard seconding that motion.

Dresser will be sworn in to his familiar post at Monday’s 7 p.m. monthly session in the Council Chamber.