TEMPLE CITY – Judy Wong, who served as Temple City’s first Asian mayor in 2007, has been elected to another one-year term as mayor by her City Council colleagues.
Voters ousted veteran Councilman Ken Gillanders and former Mayor Cathe Wilson in favor of two challengers March 3.
Upon her selection as mayor Tuesday, Wong referred to an incident in 2006, when she was controversially passed over for mayor pro tem, despite being next in line for the position. That year, Wong had invited friends and family to witness her expected appointment, only to watch political foe Wilson appointed to the post instead.
“I was a little bit emotional earlier. Everyone knows what I went through,” Wong said. “The five of us are going to move forward rapidly and make major change in our city.”
Fernando Vizcarra, who was sometimes Wong’s only ally on the old council, was elected mayor pro tem Tuesday.
Both Wilson and Gillanders gave brief remarks before stepping down. Wilson has attributed her loss to the bribery allegations made against her by developer Randy Wang.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is investigating allegations that Wilson, Wong and Councilman David Capra solicited bribes in return for approvals of Wang’s Piazza mall project. One week before the election, D.A. officials kicked down Wilson’s door and searched her home.
“I feel like I have done the job…except for one regret,” Wilson said. “It was the biggest bad decision I have made. It was the Piazza – we were all fooled on that.”
Gillanders thanked the city staff “for putting up with me for 30 years.”
“It’s sort of hard to leave,” he said. “But I can find something to do with my time, trust me.”
Wong considered shortening the one-year mayoral term to nine and a half months to also allow Capra to serve as mayor before he is termed out, but Capra declined due in part to his health.
“I talked it over with Dave, and he said that in his condition right now he doesn’t really want to be mayor,” Wong said Wednesday.
Capra suffered a stroke in last June and was hospitalized for two weeks, but he said that other factors also contibuted to his decision not to serve as mayor.
“I don’t want all the extra pressure of everything I have to do as mayor and then do what I have to do at work also,” Capra said.
The meeting also marked the swearing in of Vincent Yu and Tom Chavez, the election victors who had promised, among other things, greater transparency in local government.
In his first meeting, Chavez asked that the broadcasting of council meetings be put on the next council agenda – something that the previous council had voted down.
Yu asked that the council consider moving public comments to the beginning of meetings, as opposed to the end, to encourage public input.
“Hopefully it’s a new era,” Wong said.
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