Leadership shifts on City Council
Tom Stallard to be mayor in 2021; Mayra Vega to serve as mayor pro tem
Longtime Woodland City Councilman Tom Stallard will advance to his second term of mayor in 2021 with newly installed Councilwoman Mayra Vega to serve as mayor pro tempore.
But how the council will determine a mayor in 2022 will have to be decided in January.
The action came during a Tuesday evening council meeting held via Zoom and was taken on a unanimous 5- 0 vote.
In mid- November, Stallard had proposed that current mayor Rich Lansburgh serve another term because the coronavirus pandemic had so disrupted the community. Although Stallard had no problems with serving as mayor next year, he said he didn’t want to deny Lansburgh the opportunity.
“I want to thank my colleagues with honoring me as their selection for mayor for
2021,” Stallard said in a prepared statement. “Although I was content to wait another year, I am fully prepared to assume this responsibility. I want to thank Rich for the exceptional job he has done as mayor in the most difficult year I can recall. Let’s enjoy the holidays, don those masks, socially distance and hunker down with immediate families only. Then let’s conquer this plague so we can get back to the life we love in 2021.”
Stallard has served on the council since 2011 and as mayor for two years prior to 2016.
The mayoral rotation problem lies in the fact that technically, the next person after Stallard would be the councilmember representing District 3, currently
held by Angel Barajas.
However, Barajas is advancing in January to represent the 5th Yolo County supervisorial district. Barajas had two more years to serve on the council.
Tuesday was the last council meeting for Barajas and acting later in the session, the council decided to fill the vacancy by appointment rather than a special election. But that would still leave the District 3 seat unfilled until possibly March.
Additionally, no one on the council was prepared to advance a still- unknown person to the mayoral post with what could be as little as six months of experience.
“If we stuck with the current rotation system there would be no mayor pro tem,” Stallard summarized. “The next person would be from District 3. If we appoint someone I’m not comfortable with having an appointed person serve as mayor. If we go with an election, then it would occur in June and six months later that person would be mayor.”
Stallard said he made the proposal for Lansburgh to continue in the post because of his “personal regard” and his ability to stabilize the council. “He’s also been denied many of the joys that come with mayor because he’s not able to be out there.”
For his part, Lansburgh shared Stallard’s concerns about the District 3 councilmember. He was also concerned that should the rotation continue that Vega would not be able to serve as mayor for another eight years.
And, Lansburgh added, he shared concerns of other councilmembers that a person serving as mayor should not be running for reelection while mayor because it would give an unfair advantage.
Lansburgh was also clear that he had “a ton of plans for 2020, but not a damn one was able to be put in the works. So, do I want to see those things happen? I do. Do I have to be mayor to do that? I don’t think so. I’m here to serve as the pleasure of the council.”
New Councilwoman Victoria Fernandez recommended that Stallard advance to mayor and Vega serve as mayor pro tem, which was seconded by Barajas, who also suggested that the council work in reverse order and eventually re- establish the regular order of mayorship, which led to other ideas for rotating into the post.
However, Lansburgh recommended that the council figure out the actual rotation until January because it “didn’t have all the answers yet for District 3.” City Manager Ken Hiatt said he would come up with ideas for the council’s Jan. 5 meeting.
Meanwhile, the council also agreed to set up an Ad Hoc Committee consisting of Stallard and Fernandez to accept applications and hold the initial interviews for filling Barajas’ position after deciding that it would be more economical to appoint a new councilmember than hold a special election.
Lansburgh and others on the council were opposed to spending as much as $ 50,000 for a special election during the pandemic because it didn’t make economic sense spending excessive amounts of money during the pandemic. A special election would also leave the District 3 post unfilled until at least June, which would mean no one would be representing the district.
Barajas agreed with the decision to make an appointment and recommended Fernandez because District 4 has similar demographics to District 3.
Fernandez had no issue with serving on the committee as long as the council made sure to get public feedback on any final candidates.
The Ad Hoc committee and council will, however, be under a tight timeline. Under city code, the clock started running as soon as Barajas submitted his letter of resignation. That means the council has until Jan. 29 to select potential candidates, vet them, involve the League of Women Voters to get public feedback through forums, and make a selection.
However, Lansburgh didn’t foresee a problem. He said people started submitting applications shortly after Barajas was elected to the Board of Supervisors last March.