Fremont council rejects mayor’s picks for commission

Amid charges that her move was divisive and political, the Fremont City Council rejected Mayor Lily Mei’s two nominations to the Planning Commission.

Following a contentious discussion Tuesday night, the council voted 3-2 against appointing Benjamin Yee and Reena Rao to the commission. Mei wanted them to replace Brannin Dorsey, the current commission chairperson, and Reshma Karipineni, the vice chair. Both were appointed in 2014 by former Mayor Bill Harrison, who Mei defeated in 2016.

As a result of the vote, Dorsey and Karipineni will continue to serve on the commission for now.

In Fremont, members of city commissions who are eligible and willing to serve a second four-year term have routinely been reappointed.

Mei defended her decision to buck the trend by noting her two appointees are essential to helping shape her vision for the city.

But her explanation didn’t fly with the council majority, Raj Salwan, David Bonaccorsi and Rick Jones.

“Rather than uniting our community as the leader of Fremont, as she was elected to do, the mayor is creating further divisions by removing two good commissioners,” Salwan said, calling the whole discussion a “public showdown” that could have been avoided.

Dorsey told the council her and Karipineni’s removal would be an “unprecedented” move, a “purely political” one at that. Dorsey was the former head of the local teachers union, which supported Mei’s successful bid for school board in 2008 but pulled support for her re-election campaign in 2012.

She is also the former chair of the Tri-City Democratic Forum, which supported Harrison for mayor in 2016 over Mei.

“There should not be an automatic reappointment when a term is completed,” Mei said at the meeting, noting if that was the intent the terms should be for eight years instead of four.

Had Mei’s choices been approved, five of the seven commissioners would have had less than two years of experience in their roles, which was a main point of concern for Bonaccorsi, Jones and Salwan.

“You need that collective knowledge and institutional understanding,” said Bonaccorsi, who served 10 years on the commission and said it took him about three years before he felt “comfortable.”

But Counciman Vinnie Bacon, who voted with Mei, said it was “disingenuous” of the other three council members to express shock, noting that Jones and Salwan both were appointed to the Planning Commission by Harrison after losing election bids to the City Council in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

“This is a political appointment, and it is political by nature,” he said.

Mei’s 2016 campaign focused on stopping what she called “rampant development.”

“The bottom line is all three of you supported Mayor Harrison, and your candidate lost,” Bacon told Jones, Bonaccorsi and Salwan. “And now you’re trying your best to not allow Mayor Mei to use the authority that she has been granted.”

Mei said the councilmen who voted against her choices are supporting a troubled status quo in Fremont politics.

“Time and time again, I’ve seen the practices,” she said. “People have bullied and intimidated others in efforts to move in their own name of their politics.”

Mei said she was merely trying to support candidates who would bring “thoughtful leadership.”