Millbrae chooses next year’s mayor

“I want us to focus on the opportunities and move forward, to alleviate the stress and the anxiety that has been placed, for years, not just last year, from councilmembers throwing out protocol,” Goodman said. “We need to acknowledge that and continue to move forward. Politics has played into it, but hopefully, we can take all that out as we move forward.”

The council voted Fung to be next year’s mayor, Goodman to remain vice mayor, and Councilmember Angelina Cahalan to become mayor in 2026, 4-0-1, with Councilmember Gina Papan abstaining, during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Two weeks ago, the council briefly discussed the need to solidify the mayor rotation protocol that are loosely written and at the whim of the council. During that meeting, Goodman stated Fung, who has yet to serve as mayor in his three years on the council, is best suited for the position. The decision meant that Goodman would skip himself from becoming mayor only after a year of serving on the council.

Since 2015, the mayor’s position has rotated every year. That means councilmembers all get to serve as mayor during their four-year term. However, the council has the right to decide who will be mayor. It’s a contentious protocol format leading to the council breaking the mayor rotation twice since 2017.

Goodman previously suggested the council should protect future rotations from individual politics by implementing a more reliable protocol to vote on a vice mayor and guarantee that person becomes mayor the following year. He further suggested that if the City Council decides to block a person from being the vice mayor, it must do so with a super-majority vote, 4-1.

While most of the council appeared ready to work out the details of a more solidified protocol, Papan said she is concerned about the short time the council would have had to discuss the protocol.

“Rewriting protocols, I just don’t think this can be done in this time frame,” said Papan, who added there may be a new law that would allow the city to pursue a citywide mayor in the coming years, which would need to be considered.

In December last year, Papan and Fung would have rotated to the mayor and vice mayor, respectively. However, they were blocked 3-2 by Cahalan, Mayor Ann Schneider and Goodman. The move ultimately skipped Papan and appointed Schneider as mayor.

The City Council will reconvene early next year to discuss how it wants to move forward with its mayor rotation protocol.