The Santa Rosa City Council on Monday night selected Robin Swinth, a member of the city’s powerful Board of Public Utilities and a former Agilent Technologies engineer, to fill the remaining two years of Susan Gorin’s council term.

Two more Santa Rosa residents have thrown their hats in the ring for the City Council seat left vacant by Susan Gorin’s election to the county Board of Supervisors.

The six current members of the Santa Rosa City Council aren’t wasting any time working to appoint someone to fill the remaining two years of Susan Gorin’s term.

On the day that Susan Gorin will be sworn in as the new Sonoma County 1st District supervisor, her former colleagues on the Santa Rosa City Council will begin the politically delicate task of replacing her. Several key questions facing the council Tuesday will determine how they’ll go about filling the vacancy.

The election of Erin Carlstrom to the Santa Rosa City Council has created one of the youngest, most influential and most unpredictable politicians the city has seen in decades.

As the race for four seats on the Santa Rosa City Council enters the final stretch, political observers are focused less on Mayor Ernesto Olivares and Councilman Gary Wysocky and more on which candidates may ride their coattails into office. Both incumbents are expected to hold onto their seats on the seven-member council, leaving the fight for third and fourth place as the real battleground where the balance of power on the next council will be decided.

Campaign cash has surged into the coffers of Santa Rosa’s City Council candidates over the past three months, a sign that the seven-way race for four seats is heating up.

The eight candidates running for Santa Rosa City Council fielded questions about district elections, gang violence, mandatory solar panels and bridging the council’s ideological divide during a forum Monday, giving voters their best chance yet to size up those vying for four seats Nov. 6.