It's a Hit!
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Last night's Claremont City Council meeting was a quiet affair featuring introductions and farewells. If you caught the action streamed over the city's website, you saw that the results of the March 3rd municipal election were certified.You also witnessed a farewell address by ex-Mayor Ellen Taylor, who sucked the life out of the council chambers with a long, year-by-year (some would say blow-by-blow) recitation of all the achievements the council inflicted on its citizens during Taylor's four-year term on the council. The amazingly myopic Taylor used the secret word, "VISION," several times.
Taylor concluded by warning that she would still be around and might very well offer some future interference in city business. Frankly, we preferred our more succinct farewell tribute to Taylor over her own, but we're biased.
After Taylor wrapped up her parting shots, she was presented with a parting gift, and then the two winning council candidates, incumbent Corey Calaycay and Community Services Commissioner Larry Schroeder, were sworn in.
Losing candidate Bridget Healy was apparently there as well, though she seems to have cut out after Taylor's farewell because she wasn't around later when Calaycay acknowledged her from the podium.
The council also reorganized, naming Calaycay mayor and Linda Elderkin mayor pro tem. Councilmember Sam Pedroza nominated both, and both were approved unanimously.
It's very early to tell, but we really got the sense the council and the community have turned a corner. Something just felt different. For years we've heard talk of inclusiveness and diversity, but things on the council have remained fractious and exclusive with respect to the public. The campaigns of 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007 also featured varying degrees of ugliness. This time, though, as several people have said, including Calaycay in his comments after being appointed mayor, the election season was relatively quiet, and the candidates ran clean campaigns with the issues actually getting a public airing.
Larry Schroeder gave a brief, gracious speech last night, thanking his supporters and, most of all, his wife, who couldn't be there because she was teaching a class at the University of La Verne.
The other councilmembers, Elderkin, Pedroza, and Peter Yao, were similarly gracious in their remarks, and all five councilmembers spoke of looking forward to working together in what will certainly be challenging times.
We'll see how things develop. There will be disagreements over policies and various projects, but the juxtaposition of Taylor's farewell and the new council's installation provided a perfect contrast between the old Claremont and the new.
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