Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile elected to Albany’s mayorship
Marge Atkinson was elected to be Mayor of Albany Monday. Photo by Linda (Linjun) Fan.
Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile were elected as mayor and vice-mayor of Albany by a 3:2 vote Monday, at a dramatic City Council meeting where the split of the community caused by the waterfront controversy was still evident.
Councilmember Peggy Thomsen and Farid Javandel voted no to the nomination. Thomsen said she believed that Javandel should be the vice mayor. Javandel served as Albany’s vice mayor in 2006, and was expected to rotate to the mayorship in 2007, according to what many believe to be an unwritten tradition of the community.
“That didn’t happen two years ago. So I believe that we need to get back to an orderly transition, ” Thomsen said.
Councilmember Robert Lieber served two terms of mayorship in the past two years, with the support of Atkinson and Wile, who took similar positions on the waterfront issues with him.
Javandel said he should be the mayor.
“Robert and I are the currently longest-serving members. He is coming off from his term as mayor, theoretically that would make me next, ” he said.
He also said that his nomination would help to bring people together, since he represents the voice from the other side of community, different from the three majority on the council .
“If we really want to heal the perceived divisions in Albany, maybe we need to move away from the sense of absolute block, and start to divide up the way we share out the positions on the council, ” he said.
A roomful of residents were present at the meeting. Two dozens of them spoke passionately about their preferences. Except for Lieber, all the other four members were recommended to be mayor by someone from the public. Waterfront issues were again brought up, and attacks against old opponents were made.
As soon as the hour-long public comment period ended, newly-elected Councilmember Peggy Thomsen made a motion to elect Atkinson as mayor and Javandel as vice mayor.
Lieber said the election of the two positions should be separated.
“Normally we do it once at a time. I have never been to council meetings without it happening that way,” Lieber said.
“Isn’t that a procedure we used to rotate?” Javandel said. He seconded Thomsen’s motion.
City Attorney Robert Zweben was consulted. He said that there was not a clear procedure to follow, and either way would be fine.
“Mr. Mayor, there is a motion on the floor and there is a second on the floor, ” Thomsen said, urging Lieber to call a vote.
Lieber paused for a few seconds, asked for an alternative motion, and then made one himself.
“I have not planned to participate in this at all. But being thrown this curved ball, without the ability for you to do it the normal way, ” he turned to speak to Thomsen who sat on his left side. “I will move for Marge Atkinson for mayor and Joanne Wile for vice mayor. Do I have a second?”
“I’ll second it, ” Atkinson said shortly afterwards.
Thomsen protested, saying that her motion should be voted on first.
City Attorney was consulted again. He suggested the Council to pull a vote on the two motions at the same time. Lieber decided not to follow the idea.
“I think we’ll get through this just fine, ” he said. He turned to Thomsen, and threw open his arms to her. “If you’d like to speak, please do.”
Thomsen then talked about the reason why she made the nomination. Javandel said he supported Thomsen’s idea.
Then Councilmember Wile made her position known.
“My thought is that we need the two people, whom I am hoping, will have the most energy to meet with businesses, to attend all kinds of regional meetings, to develop new approaches for the economy of Albany, and we really need to have a sense of dedication to come out of this economic recession with our heads above water, and I am hoping that would be Marge (Atkinson) as the mayor and myself as vice mayor, ” Wile said.
Atkinson agreed. She said Wile is a person that she would work with well.
“We all can still have representation on the council even if not being elected to be mayor or vice mayor, ” she said.
After every member’s position was known, Lieber said that the procedure was to start with the later motion made and proceed to the earlier one. So he called for a vote on the motion he made.
Three members voted yes and two voted no, a result similar to that of many votings related to the waterfront issues in recent years.
Lieber stood up and gave up his chair to Atkinson. Some in the audience clapped in joy. Some rose up and left the room in disappointment.
“I do look forward to working with everybody on the Council, ” said Atkinson as she settled into the center seat. “…I hope we can move forward in a good way. I don’t think we necessarily can’t. I think Everybody can really try hard to come together. I don’t see it’s impossible. “
Click here to watch the video of the council meeting. A feature story on Joanne Wile is coming up.
Joanne Wile, newly-elected vice mayor of Albany.
This so-called election of Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wiley to mayor and vice mayor just reinforces why I did not vote for Robert Lieber and never plan to. He behaves in an arrogant, rude, and dictatorial manner. His treatment of fellow council members Peggy Thomsen and Farid Javandel was outrageous. Whoever heard of putting forth your own motion when you didn’t like the one already on the floor and then voting on yours first. and ignoring the original motion. Bob Zewbwn is not the one to consult. Clearly the Albany City Council needs a parliamentarian and possibly an overhaul of the by-laws to prevent this kind of disrespectful behavior in the future.
Correct me if I’m wrong but does not the city work under Robert’s Rules of Order? If so I believe you can not have Lieber’s motion without the consent of the person who put forth the first motion.
However, do the rules really mater here? What happened is the first motion was not voted down by the three before they voted in their people. So with that said just to make things take a long long time someone should sue the city to get the vote thrown out so that the first motion could be voted down by the three. Then they could have there own motion.
To sum it up there was only one vote while if they had done things correctly there would have been two first a 2-3 vote followed by a 3-2 vote. Sounds like the people wanted to make sure the waterfront plans started by these three continues forward. They at least believe that is why they are there.
Either way the majority would win and rule which is how we do things in this country.
Sue is wrong to say Lieber arrogant, rude and dictatorial since what he did was vote what he felt was best for the city and he was elected to do. No wonder he is short tempered during the meeting with people calling him names all the time.
In Peace,
Andy Austin
P.S. I looked this up and Lieber should have amended the motion to replace the two names with his two, this would have caused two votes first to amend and the second to vote them into office.
PPS Either way it is three to two still so we have a chance on the water front!
Before attacking a duly elected City Councilmember, it’s important to have your facts straight.
First, by terms of the City Charter Chapter II, the City Councilmembers “…newly constituted shall then elect one of its members as its presiding officer, who shall have the title of Mayor. The Council shall also designate one of its members as Vice-Mayor. … The officials so chosen shall hold their respective offices subject to the pleasure of the Council.”
Mayor Lieber in his role as the duly designated presiding officer, ie Mayor, opened the discussion to take nominations, but the honorable Councilmember Thomsen instead offered up a motion in an attempt to override the nominating process. Once hijacked, Mayor Lieber offered a “secondary” motion, for which Roberts Rules 8 provides as follows:
“Secondary Motions. To assist in the proper disposal of the question various subsidiary motions are used,… and for the time being the subsidiary motion replaces the resolution, or motion, and becomes the immediately pending question.”
So, Mr Lieber’s motion got voted on first: to elect Marge Atkinson as Mayor and Joanne Walsh as Vice Mayor. Them’s the rules! But really, in essence, the City Council can configure any way they wish to elect the Mayor.
The City Attorney Robert Zweben, an active member of the State Bar, officer of the court, and duly elected city official, is correct: the matter is left up to “the pleasure of the council.”
Secondly, a few speakers suggested that certain city councilmembers should be elevated because they received more votes in the most recent election. However, Ms Atkinson and Ms Wile were elected in the election two years prior! Not the most recent election. There’s no comparing them apples to those oranges.
Further, please direct your attention to the ballot for election of city councilmembers: it said this last time “choose three.” Not choose the Mayor and Vice Mayor or choose the first, then the second, then the third. There is no privilege assigned by the rank of most votes cast.
Conversely, a measure was on the ballot to directly elect the mayor, but the voters chose not to adopt it; thus, the mayor and vice-mayor remain elected by the City Council per the City Charter Chapter II. That’s the way the voters want it, apparently. (Which is another example of how some people shoot themselves in the foot when exercising their obsessive-compulsive demonization of a duly elected city councilmember.)
In conclusion, the elections are over. The voters have spoken. We have our new mayor and vice mayor properly elected. So, let’s move on and support our City Council in handling the tough issues that now face us.
The troika strikes again. Thank you Sue Douglass for stating so well exactly what I feel.
Congratulations to Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile on your election to Mayor and Vice-Mayor Much success in the coming year!
Thank you to Robert Lieber for all the work you have done on the council, especially to protect our region from aerial spraying.
oops,linjun, i said “Walsh” instead of “Wile”. Please fix. Thansk so much. You provide a great service to Albany (most of the time :>)
I noticed that when Peggy Thomsen ran for council she promised open government and mentioned that she is on various bond oversight committees. http://albanytoday.org/2008/09/22/meet-election-candidates-peggy-thomsen-for-albany-city-council-2/
However, when I look to the pool bond oversight committee’s web page, I find that Peggy is on the committee, but the minutes from the October meeting are not there. I tis now mid-December. I feel that the bond oversight committee has not been keeping the public informed with respect to costs and to decisions relating to the facility’s configuration. Does anyone even know when they next meet???
http://ausd.ca.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1223961136973
I appreciate Peggy’s statements in support of open government. Now I would like to see Peggy do more to promote openness with respect to the pool bond measure.
Since the pool is owned by the school district but is also being used by the general public, I would like to see Peggy do more to create a cooperative effort between city government and the school district on this issue. She is on the council and she sits on the key committee.
So far I see the excellent statements; but I am not aware of any action to back these statements.
To correct Mr. Dann, Councilmember Thomsen made a motion on item 4.1 of the agenda. Item 4.1 was listed as election of Mayor and Vice-Mayor. She simply made a motion on the item as it was listed.
Had the election of Mayor and Vice-Mayor been listed as two seperate action items then Councilmember Lieber would have been correct. She did not “hijack” any motion as Mr. Dann stated.
As to Councilmember Lieber’s alternative motion nominated Councilmember Atkinson and Councilmember Wile, he is correct that the alternate motion is voted on first. Aticle II of Roberts Rules of Order state that a secondary motion may be applied to any main motion, and when made they supersede the main motion and must be decided before the main motion can be acted upon.
As for Councilmember Lieber’s rude, arrogant and dictatorial behavior, I can only comment on what I have seen.
At the last council meeting I spoke in favor of Councilmember Javandel taking his turn as Mayor. I stated that all the councilmembers were qualified but that Councilmember Javandel had been passed over twice as Mayor. At this point during my comments then still Mayor Lieber began to shake his head at me. I can not think of a more rude or disrespectful way to treat a member of the public. I did not call him names
Sorry about that my son hit enter.
As I was saying I did not call him names or berate him about past actions, I merely stated that I thought Councilmember Javandel should have the opportunity he has earned as a Councilmember.
I too congratulate Mayor Atkinson and Vice Mayor Wile and hope under their leadership we can bring our much divided community together.
Ugh. They’ve got the majority, they can do as they please. I just hope Atkinson runs the city better than she ran her classroom….don’t mean to sound rude but that’s how I feel. And I don’t mean to insinuate that anybody is a bad person, but Lieber’s folks just seem to be into ignoring and/or taking petty jabs at those who disagree with them. Really, it’s getting tiresome.
It’s ironic that Mr. Dann begins his comments with, “Before attacking a duly elected City Councilmember, it’s important to have your facts straight.” Good advice for Mr. Dann! The straight facts are that Peggy did everything right; City Attorney Zweben confirmed her motion was ok; Lieber found a legal way to prevent voting on Peggy’s motion; Mr. Dann attended the meeting and heard all that. Nothing in any of those facts supports Mr. Dann’s mischaracterization of Peggy’s motion as “an attempt to override the process”, and no fact warrants his use of an inflammatory term like “hijack” in regard to Peggy. The missing fact is why attack Peggy when all she did was refuse to be bullied into changing her motion?
Looking forward, I too hope for a more civil City Council with the reorganization. I wish it could have started Dec 15 with either Wile or Atkinson saying gently to Lieber, let’s vote on Peggy’s motion since it is legal, seconded, and on the floor. That would have gone a ways towards being, not just saying, we are civil
Mr Robert Cheasty, Esq., a local practicing attorney, former Albany mayor, President of Solano Ave Merchants, etc., etc., remarked (paraphrasing) at the last city council meeting that some of the comments by earlier speakers made about sitting city council members were almost criminal. How so?, one may ask.
A practitioner of civil litigation, Mr Cheasty would be commenting on the law of defamation. In writing, it’s libel; if spoken, then slander. There are some defenses that may apply to any situation, but repeating in writing what someone else has said verbally, or vice-versa, is not in and of itself a defense.
An example might be saying: “I heard that X wrote that Y is a fat-head.” Putting aside some defenses that may apply, basically verbal repetition of the original writing (libel) converts to slander by the new speaker.
Likewise burying a slander/libel in the form of a grammatical construction again may not be a defense, as in: “While X says that Y is a fat-head, I’m just saying…”. There would be a question whether that construction alone can cleanse the second speaker. Not sure. But we live in a litigious society, so who knows.
Apart from the legal niceties, speaking at a city council meeting, writing on a website. one might first consider that all of the council members were elected, which means they had to put out their name on the ballot, raise funds (often their own money), appear in public, suffer the criticism of their opponents, sweat out getting enough votes, then once elected serve late into the night for meagre compensation.
[...] was elected as Vice Mayor of Albany at a meeting last week by a 3-2 vote. She voted for herself and got the votes of Councilmember Robert Lieber and Marge [...]
Is “almost criminal” like “almost pregnant?” A miss is as good as a mile, as they say.
I’ve lived in Albany since arriving in California from the DC area in 2001, and I have to say that the local politics are every bit as fascinating as the inside the Beltway ones were… even more so, really, with a small business incorporated here, and two girls in school at Marin. I wish the new Mayor and Council luck, in these rather challenging times.