Election

Fair Mayor Rotation & Council Member Hello & Goodbye Tuesday, Dec 17

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Fullerton residents are encouraged to attend a pivotal city council meeting on December 17, 2024, at 5:30 PM, where District 4 representative Jamie Valencia will be sworn in as the newest member. The event will also mark the farewell to retiring council member Bruce Whitaker and the election of the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem.

According to the city’s fair rotation policy (No. 226 in the Policy and Procedures Manual), the Mayor Pro Tem is automatically elevated to the position of Mayor after serving a year, which limits the Mayor’s term to one year. The policy prioritizes selection based on seniority, considering the consecutive years served on the council without holding the Mayor’s position.

However, the selection process has come under scrutiny as District 5 representative Councilmember Ahmad Zahra, who has spent six years on the council, has faced repeated denials for the position from fellow council members Whitaker, Jung, and Dunlap, who have favored selecting themselves instead. This raises questions about adherence to the city’s policy and fairness in the council’s appointments.

There is growing support among residents for Zahra to be appointed as Mayor, with District 3 representative Dr. Shana Charles possibly stepping in as Mayor Pro Tem, given their seniority and the fact that others have had their turns at the helm. Residents hope the upcoming meeting will resolve this contentious issue, ensuring that council leadership reflects the community’s values and commitment to equitable governance.

Below is a short history of the uneven mayor rotation in recent years.

  • 2018: Mayor Chaffee; Mayor pro tem Silva  (Zahra elected Nov 2018)
  • 2019: Mayor Silva; Mayor pro tem Fitzgerald  
  • 2020:  Mayor Fitzgerald; Mayor pro tem Whitaker (Dunlap and Jung elected Nov. 2020)
  • 2021:  Mayor Whitaker; Mayor pro tem; Dunlap 
  • 2022:  Mayor Jung; Mayor pro tem Whitaker;  (Dunlap declined to serve as Mayor)
  • 2023:  Mayor Jung; Mayor pro tem Whitaker ; (Charles elected Nov 2022)
  • 2024:  Mayor Dunlap;   Mayor pro tem Jung
  • 2025: Who will be Mayor and Mayor pro tem?  

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Categories: Election, Elections, Local Events, Local Government, Local News

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14 replies »

  2. It is an honorary title. Flory even said she wouldn’t change the rotation so everyone was required to have a turn.

    • Maybe watch the special meeting last week and see if that person is qualified to run a city?!? That’s what this article is about. Plus Flory lost so her opinion is moot!

      • Jeff – I have watched all city council meetings and have witnessed Councilmembers Jung and Dunlap disrespect both Councilmembers Zahra and Charles numerous times by cutting off discussion of an item before they were granted time to comment. Although Councilmembers Jung and Dunlap have been showing improvement in being more polite and collegial recently – at the Dec 10th meeting Mayor Dunlap prevented Councilmember Zahra from asking a question during deliberations. At that meeting Councilmembers Charles, Jung and Dunlap spoke before Dunlap started making a motion. Zahra asked to speak – and Dunlap yelled at him and did not allow him to voice his question. It was ridiculous. Zahra got up and left the room. He came back after a break was called and voted with the other three to pass the items (Whitaker voted no).
        Zahra often brings up very important issues during meetings. He is highly educated, highly qualified, and owns a successful small production company that creates award-winning documentaries.
        But, John is right – the professional City Manager and his staff run the city – not the council.
        The council hires the City Manager.
        Part of the mess the city is in is because of the incompetence of the council majority in firing excellent city manager Domer (at great financial expense) just as we were coming out of covid years . Many top department heads and qualified staff jumped ship at that time and also after the council majority proceeded to hire an unqualified, unemployed buddy as CM (happily he is gone).
        We now have CM Levitt – who knows what he is doing in running a multi-hundred-million dollar city.

  3. Addressing Miriam’s comment above, at the LWV candidate forum, I stated that I did not favor mandatory rotation. I believe it is important for the council to have the discretion to exclude someone unfit to represent our city as mayor. Specifically, I had Steve Rocco, a former Orange Unified School District board member, in mind. During his 4 years on the school board, he routinely created chaos on the board by theatrically spouting out conspiracy theories concerning The Partnership (a group of politicians and other leaders), which he claimed was trying to kill him and control the United States to boot. The board eventually censured Rocco for his disruptive behavior, and he responded by suing the board. He lost in court.

    I have nothing but the deepest regard for Ahmad Zahra and his work on the council. During my 14 years on the Fullerton City Council, I never observed a harder working councilmember. His diligence in representing District 5 has activated and given voice to a part of our community that heretofore has not had a voice. That work has also activated District 4 which is demographically much like District 5.

    It has been heartbreaking to see Ahmad passed over for the past 4 years by councilmembers whose work ethic and experience doesn’t hold a candle to that of Ahmad’s. Since Fred Jung has higher political aspirations, I’ll bet that tomorrow’s reorganization will see Dunlap appointed Mayor again with Jung tagged as the Pro Tem. That means that next year, Jung will be designated Mayor just in time for his run for O. C. Supervisor to fill Doug Chaffee’s seat. Anyone want to take that bet?

    • Unfortunately the elections are over and so may be the improvement in behavior of both Jung and Dunlap that they demonstrated while the campaign was going on. Still I have hope that those two will surprise everyone and be fair and allow District 5 Ahmad Zahra and District 3 Shana Charles to have their turns. We will see tonight at 5:30.

        • You are right. I did not keep my temper at last night’s meeting when Bushala Jr. began reading a bunch of lies and disinformation into the record. Overall a disappointing performance from Jung especially in nominating himself for mayor once again and passing over District 5 representative Zahra who has served 6 years and never had the chance. I encourage everyone to view the video for the Dec 17 council meeting. Really ridiculous. That doesn’t absolve me from my bad behavior. Sorry about that.

          • Even though I agree that it’s important to keep composure (so as to promote general decorum and to limit the ammunition that unscrupulous people like Tony Bushala would take advantage of), I felt your outburst in my own feelings. You expressed how many of us felt: we witnessed corruption right in front of our eyes and were powerless to stop it. And it has happened over and over again. I cannot fault you too much for using your voice when we have been deprived of representation and fairness for so long, and no other strategy to overcome the injustice has worked.