A video of the contentious chamber session shows a divided council end the mayoral rotation.
Going into the July 8th City Council Meeting, Mayor Nancy Tragarz expected to hand over the office to her Pro Tem Eric Ching as the next in line for the rotation. The meeting saw anything but the expected formality.
The three other councilmembers, Robert Pacheco, Mary Su, and Antonio Cartagena, took steps to nominate Pacheco to the mayor’s office and Su into the pro tem slot.
With Pacheco as mayor, he jumps two other councilmembers in the rotation and had not served as Mayor Pro Tem. During the nominations Tragarz detailed how she and Su, as incoming councilmembers, had previously waited for all other councilmembers to serve as Mayor.
The chamber’s lost order during the Mayoral Roll Call and included children being ushered out while Tragarz tried to pass out an article about Robert Pacheco’s previous campaign finance violations.
Once roll had been called, the vote ended 3-2 in favor of Pacheco to become Mayor, the two other votes went to Ching. The audience strongly jeered the vote’s outcome, with the chamber microphone picking up shouts like “You should be ashamed,” and “This breaks the tradition.”
The council then installed Mary Su as the new Mayor Pro Tem, also against a nominated Eric Ching, also with the same 3-2 vote. Afterwards, Eric Ching took several minutes to speak about his fellow councilmembers. Ching kept a cordial tone, but had harsh, implicating words for the new Pro Tem Mary Su, saying that her governing had been inconsistent and self-serving, most notably in her trips to China on behalf of the city. Ching concluded saying “I will still continue to serve my city with my heart and the passion… I will still smile and say ‘Hi.’ That is how I operate.”
The audience met Ching’s comments with an extended applause, to a point where Mayor Pacheco called them very impolite.
After the shakedown, those attending, many unprepared to speak, took out their frustrations on the council during public comment.
The video of the meeting can be found here.