Warden leaving Belmont City Council

The news means Belmont will have at least two new fresh faces on the council next year and possibly three depending on whether Vice Mayor Warren Lieberman is re-elected as both Warden and Councilwoman Coralin Feierbach will be off the council next year.

“I think there are a lot of strong candidates who are not running just to run. They all have strong and different positions, some I agree with and some I don’t,” Warden said.

With Warden and Feierbach not running, the candidates for the three seats so far are Lieberman, current planning commissioners Eric Reed, Kristin Mercer and Gladwyn d’Souza and Charles Stone.

Other candidates may also apply to run by Wednesday as the filing deadline has been extended with the two incumbents not seeking re-election. Both Michael Verdone and Paul Brownlee pulled papers to run but have yet to qualify for the ballot.

Warden is credited with pushing for major improvements to City Hall; lowering the potential for housing in the San Juan Canyon; and negotiating on the council’s behalf during tough labor negotiations over many budget cycles among many other accomplishments.

His “closed session bargaining” was excellent, Feierbach said about Warden.

Warden served on the council for two consecutive terms before stepping down in 2007. He then ran for an open seat in 2009 and easily was elected.

The field of candidates that year was not as strong as they are this year, Warden said.

With David Altscher not seeking re-election to the Mid-Peninsula Water District Board of Directors, Warden will file to run for the seat by Wednesday, he told the Daily Journal.

Altscher decided nearly two years ago he would not seek a third term on the water board.

“I want to give someone else a chance,” Altscher wrote the Daily Journal in an email.

The Mid-Peninsula Water District, rocked by a $250,000 embezzlement scandal last year, has hired Tammy Rudock as its new general manager back in February.

“I have not been overwhelmed by the disclosure of the $250,000 embezzlement,” Warden said.

Many of the water district’s elections have also been uncontested over the years, he said.

“It is a little bit sleepy,” he said about the district. “There is not much public enthusiasm related to the district and maybe that will change.”

District incumbents Albert Stuebing and Betty Linvill are seeking re-election and Michael Malekos is also in the race.

If Warden makes the Wednesday deadline, the district will be forced to call an election as Malekos would have walked onto the board otherwise.

silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com

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