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New Faces Join Palo Alto City Council
In Palo Alto's hard-fought election Tuesday, newly-elected City Council
members Hillary Freeman, Yoriko Kishimoto, and Jack Morton vowed to
bring their different expertise to make the city a better place to
live.
With 13 candidates vying for five seats, incumbents Vice Mayor Victor
Ojakian and Council member Jim Burch successfully won relection while
Mayor Sandy Eakins lost. She weas the first mayor since 1961 who failed
to be reelected to the council.
"The result shows that people want to have a change in the City
Council," said Dana St. George, a 20-year Palo Alto resident,
He said he is happy that new candidates can bring diversity to the
City Council.
The first African American female to be elected as a Council member,
Hillary Freeeman received the most votes, 7,732-1,000 more votes than
the second place finisher, Burch. .The 44-year-old software company
manager credited her victory to her
passion to serve the community and her ability to "listen to
different voices."
Freeman , who preferred to call herself a fifth-generation American
and a believer in democracy, said her top priorities will be to review
the budget and engage people early in the city's decision-making process.
"I think my first job is to learn the protocols of the Council
and to strategize to work with a group," Freeman said.
Kishimoto, the first Asian American to serve on the City Council,
receivesd 5,021 ballots or 12 percent of the votes, the third most
in the election. She said she would bring her expertise in business
and transportation to improve the city's traffic and allocation of
budgets.
"I want to make Palo Alto a better and safer place to raise
kids," said Kishimoto, who had received enthusiastic greetings
while she drove her car along the Embarcadero Road
.Wednesday night to collect supporters' yard signs for recycling.
The 46-year-old Japanese American business consultant attributed her
success to her strong grass-roots campaign built on a decade of active
community work on land-use and traffic issues.
Compared with Kishimoto and Freeman, Morton gained a victory by a
slim margin of
108 ballots over sixth-place finisher Chris Kelly.
As the consultant for a number of community organizations, the 59-year-old
certified public accountant said that he understands their needs and
will devote himself to improving the communication between City government
and communities.
"I will work on the budgets so that we can have enough money
to implement the
programs we have supported," Morton said.
For incumbent council member Burch, this year's election is "very
unusual." Burch said it was rare fpr a challenger like Freeman
to lead the election. It was was also rare for an incumbentmayor to
fail to win re-election.
Though happy to be re-elected, the 75-year-old full-time Council
member said he felt sorry for Mayor Eakins, came in seventh in the
number of vots.
"Sandy is not like us (Burch and Ojakian)," said Burch.
"She is not aggressive as people want her to be."
Eakins will remain on the Council until it elects elect a new mayornext
January, , according to the City Clerks' Office. Ojakian is likely
to be the next mayor since he is the current vice mayor, Burch said.
For some Palo Alto residents, the City Council election was unusual
not because of its result but because of the "nasty campaigning"
during the election.
"I have never seen such nasty election before," said John
Skelton. Skelton said that he had received several fliers accusing
incumbent Council members of "wasteful spending" and "unresponsive
representation."
These glossy fliers were sent by a newly-formed political action
committee, Palo Altans for Fiscal Integrity, which has raised more
than $18,000 for the anti-incumbent campaign.
Three of the four PAC-endorsed candidates---Kelly, Freeman and Morton
and Mark Sabin--- issued statements distancing themselves from the
organization, and it was hard to evaluate the organization's impact
on their races
