Ward Seven City Councilor Marc Laredo was elected president of Newton’s next city council at a caucus of his peers Thursday night.
Laredo was elected on a voice vote after Councilor Susan Albright dropped out of the contest, apparently after realizing that she was at least one vote short.
But the big surprise of the night was the election of Ward Eight City Councilor David Kalis as vice president. Kalis was nominated after the caucus was deadlocked 11-11 (with Brenda Noel abstaining) between the expected candidates Rick Lipof and Vicki Danberg. Under caucus rules, Lipof and Danberg were eliminated from consideration after three tied votes.
That lead to a new round of VP nominations, starting with a three way contest between surprised-to-be-nominated Councilors Barbara Brousal-Glaser, Alison Leary and Kalis.
Brousal-Glaser, was eliminated on a first round vote and Kalis was elected, 13-10, on a second vote.
Missing from the proceeding was Councilor-elect Andrea Kelley, who was out of town celebrating the birth of a grandson. Kelley’s absence might have been a factor not just in the Lipof/Danberg VP contest but to Albright’s decision to drop out.
Laredo will now have the important task of appointing the chairs, vice chairs and members of the council’s committees.
Given the departure at the end of this year of seven veteran councilors (Scott Lennon, Ted Hess-Mahan, Amy Sangiolo, Dick Blazar, Brian Yates, Jay Harney and, course, Mayor-elect Ruthanne Fuller), the president-elect’s going to have a lot of interesting decisions to make.
Congrats to both! Looking forward to working with them.
Hope our new Council President decides to name women to at least 50% of the committee chairs. Not a great look for a council that has finally achieved gender parity to have both leadership roles be men.
Congratulations to both Councilor Laredo and Kalis! Much as I appreciate my dear friend Bryan’s sentiment and support of the advancement of women in leadership, it shouldn’t be a numbers game. We have plenty of women on the council who are capable of being committee chairs and co-chairs.
Marc Laredo has always impressed me in his role as chair of land use. Great choice. Did someone actually nominate Brousal Glaser as vp? She is the most useless Councilor ever….totally ineffective
@Native: Councilor Cote nominated Brousal Glaser in the first round and she declined. Councilor Norton nominated her after the Lipof/Danberg deadlock and she accepted. Baker, Cote, Gentile, Markiewicz and Norton voted for her.
Any idea why Brenda Noel abstained?
@Meredith: I don’t. Perhaps Councilor-elect Noel will explain when she sees this. However, even if she hadn’t, neither Lipof nor Danberg would have been elected because caucus rules require 13 votes to be elected. Noel would have made it 12-11, making Kelley’s absence a factor too.
@Bryan “Hope our new Council President decides to name women to at least 50% of the committee chairs. Not a great look for a council that has finally achieved gender parity to have both leadership roles be men.”
Can we just put the gender war to bed????? I hope the new Council President selects the best person regardless of gender
This looks very promising…Strong qualified leaders. (regardless of gender)
Personally, I’d prefer a bit more diverse Council. We do seem to have an abundance of upscale Caucasians (“not that there’s anything wrong with that”), and the city is becoming more racially and economically diverse every day.
Congrats to Marc.. A Newton North Alum from the Class of 77!
Congratulations to the new President and VP of Newton’s City Council. I’m looking forward to learning who heads the committees and to a productive new year.
I’m surprised that not one of the original nominees for vice president won and particularly that not one woman won now that there are equal numbers of men and women on the council.
I too hope Brenda Noel will explain her abstention even though it would not have caused a win either way. Generally abstentions bug me unless there is a good reason for them.
@Marti: By caucus rules, Lipof and Danberg were not allowed to be nominated during the second round. Had it advanced to a third round they would have been eligible.
Thanks Greg.
Actually I was surprised that neither won in the first round. It’s intriguing to me that three votes ended in ties – how the councilors’ votes were evenly distributed.
Claire,
For the centuries of the city being run by men, was that a gender “war” and men were winning?
I was in personal contact with both Marc Laredo and David Kalis when the Highlands Area Council was considering a local historic district (LHD) for parts of Newton Highlands. David even took me up on an offer for a “Cooks Tour” of the proposed district. I felt both Marc and David wanted to help us find some way to get what they considered a “reasonable” proposal through the City Council, but they weren’t going to offer unqualified support. A fair shake is all I expect from any public official and that’s what I’ve always felt I have received from both.
Marc’s passionate and articulate leadership for the NO side on the Charter Reform ballot question made me even more convinced that I was on the right side of this issue. And Marc did it without disparaging those on the YES side or Charter Commission members that put forward the proposal for an all at-large City Council. I appreciated that positive tone, too.
Good Choices for both offices. Marc Laredo may have run for President just to escape the onerous duties of Land Use Chair;
coordinating the work of 24 Councilors may be less of a burden than hearing out citizens on all petitions and turning their concerns into coherent findings. David Kahlis surely knows how to play the long game. Half-dropping out two terms ago and then making him self so indispensable that his colleagues would pick him for Vice-President. I hope this is good compensation for losing the movie role of PT Barnum in “the Greatest Showman” to some unknown named Hugh Jackman.
Those of us who saw his performance know that the real “Greatest Showman” is the new Vice-President of the Newton City Council.