Joe Mosca was selected the city’s new mayor on Tuesday night, replacing MaryAnn MacGillivray in what was one of the city’s most contentious elections in Sierra Madre’s history. The vote was 4-1 with MacGillvary voting nay on both the Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem appointments. John Buchanan is now Sierra Madre’s Mayor Pro Tem.
When long time clerk Nancy Shollenberger called up the newly elected council member Joe Mosca for swearing in, the audience gave a standing ovation.
“I’m looking forward to working with each one of you, solving the challenges facing our community and moving forward.” Mosca told his fellow council members at Tuesday evening’s overflow crowd.
Josh Moran and Nancy Walsh, who were welcomed by most of the audience with equal enthusiasm, were also sworn in on Tuesday night. According to Jean Otto, a senior citizen and supporter of Mr. Mosca’s candidacy said that the new city council would be a “breath of fresh air for the city”.
Don Watts, who lost his bid for re election and Kurt Zimmerman who decided not to run again, were both honored for their service as council members. Zimmerman spoke eloquently of his accomplishments as did Don Watts who said he was sad to leave the council and quipped that he would need to find something else to do with his time. Both men congratulated the new council members as they vacated their seats. The former mayor will stay on council, now two seats to the left.
MacGillivray was also honored for her service and showered with gifts, including a ceremonial gavel from the city, as well as gifts from council members Watts and Zimmerman. The always eloquent Faye Angus, a staunch supporter of the former mayor, presented a bouquet of flowers as her way of saying thank you.
Thanking those community members responsible for the flowers and card, MacGillivray joked that Hail Hamilton had perhaps forgotten to sign the card. Hamilton’s verbal assault on the outgoing mayor during public comment was not yet forgotten by most of those in attendance, many of whom chuckled at Mrs. MacGillivray’s comic relief.
Although Mr. Zimmerman’s ardent request that council select MacGillivray as Mayor Pro Tem was rejected 4-1, Zimmerman took time to assert that the gavel incident involving MacGillivray and now Mayor Mosca had been overblown in the local press and speakeasies. Unlike those who still hold the incident as an important moment in city’s political arena, whom he admonished, Zimmerman said both Mosca and MacGillivray had forgotten about the incident “the minute that meeting was over”. Both Watts and Zimmerman hoped said they hope the city could now move on without “rancorous politics”, as Zimmerman put it.
One of the speakers during public comment was Sierra Madre Weekly Managing Editor John Stephens who read into public record a letter defending this newspaper’s journalistic integrity, which had been called into question by a vociferous faction in the form of a letter, addressed to the newspaper, but never sent. His response followed a reading of this letter by Dee Alcorn.
Photographs by Terry Miller