City Council President Scott Peters won a third term as president for 2008 on Tuesday, Nov. 13, but not before some of his critics spoke out. Two councilmembers voted against him in contrast to his unanimous votes in 2006 and 2007.
District 7 Councilman Jim Madaffer nominated Peters, saying he did “an outstanding job” in 2006 and 2007. He described Peters, who represents District 1, as “smart and focused.”
District 6 Councilwoman Donna Frye agreed, saying, “Mr. Peters has done a good job as council president, but I don’t think he’s the only one.”
She said she would support District 4 Councilman Tony Young for the job if Peters did not win the necessary five votes. Young is currently President Pro Tem, which means he leads the council when Peters is absent or has to recuse himself from a vote for legal reasons.
Young said he is disturbed when Frye continually seeks more information on items from Mayor Jerry Sanders and often does not get any response. Young said if he were president, he would meet with Sanders to ask him to be more accessible to Frye. Following that comment, Frye mentioned that she would support Young if the vote for Peters failed.
The council voted 6-2 in favor of Peters, with Frye and Young in opposition. Supporting Peters were councilmembers Kevin Faulconer, Toni Atkins, Ben Hueso, Brian Maienschein, Madaffer and, of course, Peters.
Phil Hart urged the council to consider someone else, saying the job was supposed to rotate among council members following the change in government to a strong mayor-strong council system passed by voters in 2004.
Hud Collins, Jarvis Ross and other members of the public told the council that Peters should step down and let someone else do it, since he is the only person to have ever held the job as council president, which was created by the change in government.
Collins and Ross said the four councilmembers who will be termed out of office at the end of 2008 should give up some committee and other leadership roles to give the others experience. At the end of 2008, Atkins, Peters, Madaffer and Maienschein will leave office.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Atkins said. “Don’t count the four of us out yet.”
Madaffer said the new committee chairmanships for 2008 should be given to Hueso, Faulconer, Young and Frye. The new committee chairs will be selected later this month. Frye has served as chair of the Natural Resources & Culture Committee for the last two years, and Faulconer heads the Audit Committee.