Home Contra Costa County Walnut Creek Council Votes to Skip Wedel as Mayor Pro Tem, Cites Family and Career Obligations

Walnut Creek Council Votes to Skip Wedel as Mayor Pro Tem, Cites Family and Career Obligations

by ECT

During Tuesday night’s Walnut Creek City Council meeting, Loella Haskew was selected as the 2016 Mayor while the council bypassed Councilman Justin Wedel in favor of Rich Carlston.

In a 4-1 vote, Wedel dissenting, the Council agreed to pass over Wedel claiming his family and career came before Walnut Creek.

Councilman Bob Simmons noted although they have language that says another colleague should become mayor pro tem, he was relying on other language that provides the selection is always a majority vote of the council.

“I believe this is a situation that requires that and I am pleased to nominate Rich Carlson as Mayor Pro Tem,” said Simmons.

Councilman Wedel responded to not being the nomination saying he was disappointed and embarrassed.

“It comes as no surprise that I am disappointed and embarrassed, but I am not either of those because I will not serve as mayor pro tem and assume mayor at this point but because of the actions of this council. Some of my colleagues talk about teamwork, team building and the rich tradition Walnut Creek has for setting good governance in the region. And they say this should be the foundational pillars that we all should act on. Yet, their actions are yet another example that shows that their actions speak louder than their words,” said Wedel. “It has become clear of the past few years that my vocal push for increased transparency, accountability, fiscal responsibility and more importantly, the debate of key issues has caused displeasure amongst my colleagues.”

Wedel said during his comments that he would not let this decision dissuade him and continue with his principled and vocal pursuits both through comments and actions to provide local government which the city deserves.

Councilman Simmons replied saying he did have a conversation with council member Wedel earlier in the day.

“I explained my two principled reasons for wanting to nominate Rich Carlston. The first was that I believe that there is a significant amount of work of that council that needs to be done and that councilmember Wedel indicated recently that our schedule is too demanding. Not his precise words, but my characterization of them. I believe that the decision to become a mayor pro tem is a increase in the amount of time and responsibility,” said Simmons. “The second reason really dealt with maintaining relationships with everyone and I am confident that Councilmember Carlston will always maintain excellent professional relationships with everyone he has to work with and I feel that is important to how this council functions and how we represent the city. If you listen closely to that, there is not one part that discussions political views or positions on matters.”

Wedel disagreed and objected to the characterization by Simmons saying he had to address the meeting schedule claim by saying he attempted to get on multiple committees throughout the year.

“To say there is not enough time in my schedule to dedicate three-hours a week to this is laughable,” stated Wedel. “No one including the former mayor had asked me if I had the time to do this and this is yet another in a line of discrimination against individuals that have a full time employment, a busy family and are trying and wanting to give back to the community.”

Wedel continued noting the busy schedules of former Mayors and Mayor Pro Tems.

“The one thing the former mayor did not mention which really is relating to the ability to form relationships and the one thing he left out was his decision was around the city manager, not around other individuals,” said Wedel.

He admitted his disagreements with the city manager and he has been vocal and clear about it, but that he and the city manager communicate as needed during business meetings.

“These excuses are flimsy at best. It goes to the point this is a policy issue, not an issue which the excuses are trying to lead us down,” said Wedel.

Councilwoman Silva noted since she seconded the nomination, she wanted to chime in saying Wedel puts his family and career before the City of Walnut Creek.

“The issue is one that you have made it clear to us, in my words, chastised us because of our schedule of meetings our desire to work together in a retreat environment, but also its one in which I respect that your career and family are your first priories. I understand that. This comes third and that is okay but I don’t believe that a mayor pro-tem who that three hours a week is unpredictable. You are the wing-person of the mayor. You are on call. We do this job 7-days a week. We can’t just come in no the first and third Tuesday of the month and do the work. It doesn’t work that way. So in my assessment, that is why I cannot support you.”

The council then voted 4-1 to appoint Rich Carlston as Mayor Pro Tem.

Former Mayor Scolds Council Decision to Bypass Wedel

Kristina-Lawson-CouncilShortly after the City Council made the decision to pass Wedel as vice Mayor, former Mayor Kristina Lawson took to social media chastising the councils decision.

She accused the council of saying the community of young, employed, parents are not welcome in City leadership while saying she was horrified that Councilwoman Silva justified her vote on the grounds that Wedel has a career and family.

She directed a Tweet at Silva saying “You can have a career, family and serve on the City council”.

The following is a letter sent by Kristina Lawson to the council:

Good afternoon, Mayor and Councilmembers,

I write to provide comments regarding item 6b on the published agenda for this evening’s regular City Council meeting. I did try to contact some of you by phone, but did not hear back.

I urge you to abandon your plans to deviate from the Council’s adopted policies and procedures. By passing over Councilmember Wedel for the honorary Mayor Pro Tem position this evening, you would send a signal to the community-at-large that this Council no longer wishes to set the example of good governance and respect in the region.

While you may have a wide variety of policy differences with Councilmember Wedel, the reason the Walnut Creek City Council has been so widely respected throughout California is because its members have always demonstrated respect for the institution, and have been focused on doing good work for the community.

When a neighboring community took a similar action just two years ago, some of you expressed shock that such a thing could happen. We discussed that one of the reasons Walnut Creek was special was because we had policies and procedures that encouraged mutual respect for all members of the Council notwithstanding policy positions or other factors.

Councilmember Wedel deserves to be nominated for the position of Mayor Pro Tem and the community would be well served to have him in that position.

Best Regards,

Kristina

 Haskew Voted Mayor in 5-0 vote.

Councilwoman Cindy Silva nominated Loella Haskew highlighting her dedication to the City.

“Being mayor is more than an honorary title.it is a job. And this doesn’t come as a surprise to most of us because when we all decided to run we asked our predecessors what does it take to do this job. And the answer was interesting and consistent,” said Silva. “It takes about 20 hours a week to do this job well as a city council. To do research, prepare for meetings, to be engaged with community and have meetings with the residents. To represent the city on regional boards and committees that is part of this job. To attend local community events and be engaged with and supporting community non-profit groups. And being mayor actually doubles the workload, you have more to do you in working with the community and have more to with staff and the city council.”

Silva noted the job takes around 40-hours a week and that she was confident Haskew could

“Loella, I am confident that you have done the work to prepare for the job of mayor and are ready to serve. First, your impressive and longstanding work for non-profits,” said Silva. “All of that has given you a debt of understanding of community values and run meetings and work with community members.”

Silva further noted that before Haskew ran for city council, she was working with the city on important issues. Finally, since being elected to city council she jumped in with both feed while doing everything asked of her.

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