Stephen Rainaldi to serve as Millbrae mayor, Anders Fung as vice mayor: The switch follows the resignation of former Millbrae Mayor Reuben Holober

Councilmembers also decided to include the election for a new District 3 councilmember on the November ballot, when residents will also vote in the District 2 and 4 City Council district elections.

Holober formally resigned from his District 3 position May 12 to avoid potential conflicts of interest with his new private-sector job in public finance at a credit rating agency, he said previously.

While Rainaldi’s switch to the mayoral position followed typical city protocol, Millbrae found itself in a unique situation for the vice mayor seat. Neither Fung nor Councilmembers Sissy Riley and Bob Nguyen were technically eligible for the position — Fung because he previously served two consecutive terms as mayor and Riley and Nguyen because they were appointed, not elected, following the city’s recall of two councilmembers.

“We have a very unique situation. No one saw this coming, with the resignation of former Mayor Holober. Plus, no one saw we would have a recall way back when,” Rainaldi said.

After the November election, Rainaldi would still be eligible to serve a full term as mayor, and the vice mayor rotational order would be determined by the election results, City Manager Tom Williams said.

Councilmembers chose to include the District 3 special election — where voters will select a candidate to serve out the rest of Holober’s term, up until 2028 — on the November ballot to save the city money and avoid ballot confusion. A special election for the position would have cost Millbrae $106,800 and would have been held in October, only 33 days before the general election.

A consolidated election, with the District 3, 2 and 4 seats on the ballot, will cost the city $51,600 total. Councilmembers were unable to make an appointment to fill the District 3 seat in the interim because of laws that prohibit a majority of councilmembers being selected by appointment, which is how both Riley and Nguyen were selected to hold office.

“When you calculate savings, it’s having one election versus two elections,” Fung said.

In the coming months, it would be prudent for the city to clarify its rotational rules around the vice mayor and mayor position, City Manager Tom Williams said. The vice mayor is expected to serve one year before assuming the role of mayor, and the rules for establishing the rotation order were put in place before Millbrae used a district system for its council elections.

Technically, the vice mayor priority position is still codified as the councilmember who receives the greatest number of votes, but because the districts have uneven numbers of residents, it could make it more fair to make determinations based on vote percentage instead, legal counsel said.

“I think we do have a rules committee that needs to convene and discuss some of these policies moving forward,” Fung said.