Imagine if you could win a seat on the Santa Rosa City Council without enduring an election.

No fundraising. No campaigning. No walking precincts. No groveling for endorsements from special interest groups.

Just fill out an application, answer a few questions, and if four of the six council members like what they hear, you get to join them in directing public policy for the next two years.

That possibility is proving attractive to 17 people who hope to be appointed to serve the remaining two years of the second term of Susan Gorin, who won election to the Board of Supervisors in November.

The Cotati City Council voted 4-0 Wednesday to seek applicants to fill a vacancy on the dais created by the resignation of Pat Gilardi, who is taking a job with new 1st District County Supervisor Susan Gorin.

Santa Rosa on Wednesday revealed the names of a diverse group of residents hoping to be appointed to the vacant seat on the Santa Rosa City Council. The 17 people seeking to fill the last two years of Susan Gorin’s term include working professionals and retirees, the financially secure and those struggling to find work.

Santa Rosa is keeping secret the names and application information about people seeking appointment to the City Council until after the application deadline passes. The council’s goal for the policy it adopted Tuesday is to preserve the integrity of the process and to encourage as large and diverse a group of applicants as possible, Mayor Scott Bartley said.

A former mayor is taking over the Cotati City Council seat left vacant by the April 9 death of Councilman Robert Coleman-Senghor. The council appointed John Dell’Osso, a National Park Service ranger, to serve the remainder Coleman-Senghor’s term.

A math professor, a former mayor and a once-recalled council member are among five applicants for a vacant Cotati Council seat. The two others are a self-employed business consultant and a former planning commission chairwoman. See who’s being considered to fill the seat vacated by the death of Councilman Robert Coleman-Senghor.

The Cotati City Council decided Wednesday to invite applications from residents to fill the seat made vacant by the April 9 death of Robert Coleman-Senghor. It rejected a request by former councilman George Barich to hold a special election.

Cotati officials plan to honor Robert Coleman-Senghor, the city councilman and former mayor, before determining plans to appoint a successor. The council has 60 days to decide whether to appoint someone to fill the remainder of Coleman-Senghor’s term — which ends in November 2012 — or to hold a special election.

Gabe Kearney was formally appointed as Petaluma’s seventh City Council member on Monday, as the other six members passed a unanimous resolution installing him before the meeting’s closed session.

Gabe Kearney had just about given up being on the Petaluma City Council. He finished fifth among nine candidates for three open seats in the November election, garnering only 12 percent of the citywide vote. But on Monday, he became the compromise choice for an open seat on the divided council despite questions about where he stands on key issues. A look at how he became Petaluma’s newest councilmember. What do you think about the choice?