The San Mateo City Council remains at an impasse in selecting a mayor following another uncomfortable meeting, with a decision possibly hinging on filling the vacant council seat.
The five-hour meeting Wednesday with councilmembers Amourence Lee, Adam Loraine, Lisa Diaz Nash and Robert Newsom saw close to two hours of public comment and another two of deliberation on appointing Lee mayor, with no success.
Lee is the senior councilmember with previous legislative experience and is in line to become mayor by precedent under the rotating mayor system and city charter. The decision is usually ceremonial, but Diaz Nash and Newsom have come out against appointing Lee at this time, citing a desire to see the absent council seat filled first on Dec. 12 so all five people can appoint the mayor. Naming a councilmember first would also ensure the mayor would also not have a tiebreaking vote for the vacant seat decision on a four-person council. The seat is empty because former Deputy Mayor Diane Papan won the election to the state Assembly.
The Dec. 7 meeting was a continuation of the original eight-hour Dec. 5 meeting and proved just as difficult. The discussion saw periods of long silence and numerous questions about the deadlock and how to resolve it. The council adjourned the contentious meeting following a suggestion from city staff near midnight.
The continuance leaves San Mateo without a mayor until at least the Monday meeting to appoint a new member. However, given the circumstances and potential tie vote, it is unclear if it will occur. The city charter said the council has 30 days to fill the vacancy. The decision on the mayor is scheduled for after the council appointment meeting. The final council seat is an at-large position that will become a seat representing District 4 in two years. Loraine, newly elected to represent District 5, called the justifications for not appointing Lee troubling and wrong. He expressed pessimism the Dec. 12 meeting would lead to solutions.
“Nothing we have experienced Monday night or tonight fills me with optimism that we are going to suddenly come to a consensus,” Loraine said. “This concerns me.”
The nine applicants for the new councilmember are Chris Conway from District 1, Planning Commissioner John Ebneter in District 2, Mason Fong from District 1, former mayor Maureen Freschet from District 3, Richard Hedges from District 4, Max Mautner from District 1, Pablo Quintanilla from District 3, Michael Ragan in District 5 and Cliff Robbins living in District 1. No applications were disqualified from the selection.
Lee has served on the council for the past three years and could be the first Asian American woman to hold the mayor position in 128 years. At the Wednesday meeting, Lee claimed she had received two different backdoor transactional proposals that if she selected a particular candidate, she could become mayor. She felt the council was losing the credibility she and the previous group had worked hard to build.
“Not a good look, sitting up here and not doing our job. It’s definitely not a good look,” Lee said.
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Diaz Nash and Newsom reiterated their focus was on naming the final councilmember first to allow a full representative to chose the council leaders.
“This is not about individuals,” Diaz Nash said. “This is about process. This is about ensuring, for me, that we give equal voice to each one of the representatives.”
“My opinion hasn’t changed,” Newsom said. “From the get-go, I feel we should have all five people seated before we appoint a mayor and deputy mayor.”
The issue has led to people from within and outside the city weighing in as the controversy spreads. Congressman-elect Kevin Mullin said on Twitter, Dec. 6, that history and precedent mean Lee should rotate to the mayor. He urged the council to do the right thing and work together to heal divisions. San Mateo County District 2 Supervisor-Elect Noelia Corzo has also called for Lee to be mayor. A change.org petition is circulating, calling for the city to stop the breach of protocol and 128 years of precedent. As of Dec. 8, close to 500 people have signed it. However, some San Mateo residents have filed a notice of intention with the city of San Mateo to circulate a recall petition for Lee from her seat.
Wednesday saw a large number of public comments in person and by mail. Genel Morgan, a San Mateo resident, said by email to the city she attended the Monday meeting and ultimately was against a mayoral appointment without a full council.
“In order to provide a democratic process, I support postponing naming the new mayor until the fifth councilmember can be seated,” Morgan said.
Marty Jordan from District 1 noted the decision went against the city’s precedents and norms and the staff’s strong recommendation to appoint a mayor.
“This appears to be a blatant, shameful filibuster which jeopardizes the city’s legislative functions and impedes governance,” Jordan said by email. “Your first-day-on-the-job unwillingness to compromise and your defiance of all standards of good governance, not to mention wasting everyone’s precious time, is not something I would hold up as role model behavior to the leaders I coach in my business.”
Diaz Nash represents District 1, which includes San Mateo Park, Baywood, Aragon and portions of the Hayward Park neighborhoods. Newsom in District 3 represents the Central, Sunnybrae, 19th Avenue Park and Bay Meadows neighborhoods and Loraine represents District 5, which includes the Beresford Hillsdale neighborhood. Lee represents an at-large district and is from North Central.
(6) comments
The reasons given by Diaz Nash and Newsom for not affirming Lee as Mayor, as is the rotational procedure, do not make any sense. There are either some very dirty politics going on in the background that she and Newsom hope to win out on by securing a majority through a back room deal, or there is some personal animosity towards Lee. Or both.
The justification that’s been given for delay is that a 5th member — one who will be appointed by the existing four — is somehow relevant to the mayoral decision. Or more inclusive of the electorate — even though they will be appointed by the people already elected.
The mayoral selection process shouldn’t result in a vote that isn’t unanimous anyway, whether four or five are voting. That’s why the rotation rules are clear and apolitical, to avoid situations like this. When we have a 5th councilmember, the rules about who should be mayor are the same and the result should not change. So there is not a good reason to wait.
Any good deliberative body has a method for tie breaking. The mayor has that critical role. Were the council meant to grapple with appointments *before* having a tie-breaker, the city charter could have specified it that way. We are in a unique moment in this new council where the tie-breaker is missing, and we can see the result.
The decision by councilmembers Diaz-Nash and Newsom is unprecedented and breaks clear democratic norms. And the thing about democratic norms is that once broken, they're hard to put back together. The mechanism they've found to avoid appointing mayor in the first meeting is a clear loophole that violates the spirit of the city charter: to not end that meeting and technically keep it in progress indefinitely. It sounds almost like a joke when you try to explain it. Diaz-Nash and Newsom must recognize the harm they are doing and appoint councilmember Lee without further delay.
The foundation this was built on was the opposition to Rod Linares because he is against abortion.
Sounds a little like Watergate, but at the local level. Lee is the next in line to be Mayor, she feel insecure about council make up (perhaps she already felt that the outcome could result in her not being Mayor). So she decides to interfere with the District 5 election. But that action has caused uneasiness among residents. Newsom and Nash hear these concerns and listen to these residents (clearly with any decision someone is not going to be happy). Lee now feels in the same position before the election, so decides to act once again to push the Council in her favor, and demand the role be filled and uses her hand picked candidate to support her. If successful not only would Lee have won her seat, but hand picked two other council member for a majority. How is anyone OK with this? On a side note I am severely disappointed in Loraine, he was attaching Nash and Newsom.
Learn from Foster City. Don't mess with rotations. It will cause issues for a decade.
Chris Conway OMG 😱 he who taketh, giveth back. [ban]
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