After weeks of discussion, Santa Clarita City Council members are set to discuss who will be the newest member tonight at City Hall.

Santa Clarita city officials are planning to wrap up the process during Tuesday evening’s special meeting, despite receiving nearly 50 applicants.

City Council members could call a second special meeting if they’re unable to vet all applicants Tuesday, according to city officials; however, at the moment no such meeting currently is scheduled.

City officials originally received 51 applications but trimmed the number down to 49 when one of the hopefuls was found to have submitted their application after the deadline and another withdrew from consideration.

At a special meeting Tuesday, January 17, City Council members will be reviewing information from each applicant and try to make a selection while giving them the opportunity to make a three-minute oral presentation.

While the council is anticipating making a selection at Tuesday’s meeting, but they have up until Feb. 2 to finalize the choice.

In the event that a selection can not be made on Tuesday, the council has outlined multiple backup plans.

These plans would include:

1. Scheduling a second special meeting to continue the selection process
2. Continue to consider applications and defer selection until the council’s regularly scheduled meeting on Jan, 24
3. Take the search in another direction as approved by the City Council

As of this writing 49 of the 51 candidates are still in the running, with two of the potential candidates residing at addresses outside of the Santa Clarita Valley and another having no voting record at their current address.

KHTS interviewed dozens of the candidates live on air. Audio and Video of these interviews can be found on the KHTS facebook page or by clicking here.