Albany City Council members reconciled after a dramatic fight over mayorship
The five City Councilmembers of Albany: Robert Lieber, Marge Atkinson, Jewel Okawachi, Farid Javandel, and Joanne Wile. Photo by Linjun Fan.
A dramatic fight at Albany City Council Monday over who would be the city’s mayor in 2008 culminated in two members walking out of the meeting to protest an “illegal procedure” supported by the other three.
The positions of mayor and vice mayor of Albany should rotate to different council members each year, according to a city policy enacted in the early ’80s. But there have been a few exceptions allowing a council member to serve two consecutive years as mayor.
Tension arose when current Mayor Robert Lieber proposed that the council discuss and change the mayoral rotating policy, with an obvious intent to continue his mayorship. His suggestion was immediately challenged by Councilmember Farid Javandel, who pointed out that the issue was listed on the meeting agenda not as an action item, but for information only, and that the council would violate the Brown Act law for open meetings if its members took action on the item.
“If you want to act on this, I would simply not participate in the vote because I would consider it to be illegal, ” Javandel said.
Javandel is a strong competitor of Lieber for the mayor position. He served as Albany’s vice mayor in 2006, and was expected to become its mayor in 2007 by some supporters.
“I was truly upset when Farid Javandel didn’t get this mayor’s position last year, ” said Councilmember Jewel Okawachi, who nominated Javandel to be mayor but was out-voted a year ago. ” I thought he would be an excellent mayor and probably the best person to be in this position right now. “
Irritated by Okawachi’s remarks, Councilmember Marge Atkinson, who voted for Lieber to serve as mayor last year, said that she supported Lieber to continue his mayorship.
“I personally feel that a person who has done a good job should have the opportunity to do another year, ” Atkinson said.
Lieber then moved to amend the mayoral policy, and got seconds from Atkinson and Councilmember Joanne Wile, both of whom side with Lieber and oppose large-scale commercial development on Albany’s waterfront, a hotbutton political issue before the council.
Javandel and Okawachi refused to vote on the motion.
“I am not voting, not yes, not no, not abstain, not voting, ” said Javandel. “I will not let you force me to vote.”
“I am the chair here. And you are a council member. You have three choices to make on a motion, you may abstain, you may vote a strong no, which would be very appropriate, or you may vote yes, ” said Lieber. “If you would like to leave, that would be fine. “
Then Javandel and Okawachi, the two frequent minorities in the five-member council, walked out of the council chamber in protest.
The other three members continued voting and approved the motion to change the mayor-rotating policy to allow Lieber to serve another year as mayor.
After he came back to the room, Javandel said that he wasn’t challenging Lieber’s mayorship, but opposing his violation of council procedure.
“I was disappointed that Robert didn’t have the patience to wait for two weeks to have a clean discussion where we could all vote on it, ” said Javandel. “I want to make it clear to everyone that I am not challenging the procedure because of some desire to make myself mayor. “
He didn’t second Okawachi’s nomination for him to be mayor, but nominated Atkinson instead.
Atkinson changed her mind after hearing what Javandel said, and decided to withdraw her motion.
“I am feeling very uncomfortable that our council members need to leave the room, ” said Atkinson. “I would like it to be clean, but it doesn’t feel that way right now. “
Lieber agreed with her after some hesitation. And the five members voted unanimously to postpone the voting to the council’s next meeting in mid-December.
Many in the audience were relieved at the tension lifting. A speaker from the public joked that the council drama was better anything on television. Everybody had a good laugh at the teasing.
The Councilmembers crossed allegiance lines on subsequent issues at the meeting. Lieber voted with Javandel and Okawachi to allow a senior homeowner to use vinyl siding on his house, while Atkinson and Wile opposed the motion.
I appreciate the fair and complete reporting of this difficult discussion. However, I do want to offer the following correction to the quote that was attributed to me in the fourth paragraph of this article:
“If you want to act on this, I would simply not participate in the vote because I would consider it to be illegal.”
I had a cold last week so my speaking may not have been as clear as usual.
Though they have a majority on the council (and remember how very close the election was), I am disappointed that the 3 members, Lieber, Atkinson, and Wile frequently seem to be unwilling to behave in a constructive and cooperative manner with the other 2 members of our council. I am most unhappy that they decided to skip over the lineage of Mr. Javandel, who was/is next-in-line to the mayorship. I hope that they will keep in mind that we all want the best for Albany and its residents, and that they will be thoughtful and civil in their interactions with those who have different opinions.
My goodness. I thought that violating longstanding procedures to strengthen and extend executive power happened in places like Caracas, Venezuela and Washington, D.C. I hope this type of behavior isn’t migrating to Albany, California!
Thanks for your correction!
[...] Farid Javandel, who walked out of a previous council meeting in a fight with Lieber, said that he had a list of things that he didn’t like about Lieber’s job as [...]
Times have changed. Used to be Albany could get by with a clubby city council with a ceremonial mayor. Didn’t much matter who was mayor because they all shared the same rather conservative philosophy.
Perhaps this “weak mayor” in Albany was in part a reaction to the alleged corruption from the Mayor Red Call era associated with land sales in anticipation of building Gateview on Albany Hill. Who today would believe that the radical rightwing John Birch Society not so long ago had an active presence in locations at the intersection of San Pablo and Solano Avenues? Or that Albany would allow a big for-profit dump to stretch out into the Bay? Or that Albany police would pick up homeless and drop them off in Berkeley/Oakland, or follow minority drivers around town? And, not so long ago a couple of young liberals from the Village were elected to the Albany City Council only to be recalled a few short months later in a nasty recall election?
Fortunately, times are changing. But not soon enough for Albany to miss out on several opportunities. We got screwed on the Bart system. No station. Trains above ground. No sound barriers. Berkeley demanded that the trains go underground first at the Oakland border, and then at the Albany border. Where the trains are above ground, see the sound barriers in Berkeley. (Turns out it was cheaper in the end to build underground than above.) Or, when CalTrans reinforced the freeways in Albany, they kept the plot of land where we lost the Pierce Street exit. In all cases, we lacked a progressive council to see a deal through.
When Robert Lieber was first elected to the city council three years ago, he was an “outsider” and often the lone progressive voice, especially on waterfront development issues. The majority then tried to muzzle Robert by not allowing him even to place matters on the agenda. That city council wanted the mall on the waterfront, and did everything they could to shut up the progressive community.
Two years ago two more progressives joined Robert on the city council: Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile. The tide has turned. Still we face new challenges. Among them waterfront development (planning process ongoing despite the opposition), Pierce Street greenfield (Mayor Lieber’s been working on it with CalTrans), development of San Pablo Ave at the University Village. (Note that Mayor Lieber was forced to recuse himself on the mortuary development on San Pablo, and in part through his absence that development avoided delivering on many promises.)
The City Council is in good hands. We don’t need unanimous votes on every issue–consider the damage done when the Republicans in WDC had both a rubberstamp Legislature to go along with the Executive (and increasingly the Judiciary).
Go Albany!
Lieber is a true commie, just look at 1248 Solano ave for proof, he supports Code Pink and their eyesore house smack dab in the middle opf the stroll, throw the punk outa office
[...] vehement opposition from a significant number of Albany residents. Two of the leading opponents, Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile, were elected into the City Council that [...]