Four candidates for appointment to an empty seat on the Oak Harbor City Council will move forward and be interviewed.

At their meeting Tuesday, members of the council took a straw poll to winnow the field of nine people who applied for the seat, which was vacated by Jeffrey Mack at the end of December.

They chose Ronnie Wright, Eric Marshall, John Chaszar and Fe Mischo to move forward to interviews planned for a Feb. 23 workshop meeting.

Each of the six council members chose their top four candidates. Wright and Marshall both received six votes, Chaszar received five votes and Mischo got three.

Ronnie Wright is a managing partner at Pacific Grace Tax and Accounting and a board member of the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce, Whidbey Golf and Country Club and the Oak Harbor Creative Arts Commission.

Eric Marshall is the publisher of the Whidbey Weekly and a member of the planning commission.

John Chaszar is a substitute para-educator for the school district and the former manager of several casinos across the country.

Mischo is a member of the county’s Community Health Advisory Board, the county Housing Advisory Board, Save the Children Action Network and the school district’s parents’ advisory board. She ran for council against Evans in November and lost.