In an unsurprising vote, Vice Mayor Alicia Aguirre was elected mayor at Monday’s city council meeting. Councilmember Jeff Gee was elected vice mayor.
Rather than using a rotational system, as other cities employ, the Redwood City councilmembers nominate who they believe would be a qualified candidate, then vote on the nominations.
“Wow, I’m Mayor,” Aguirre said after the nomination was finalized.
“I’m a family mayor, a professor mayor, a Latina mayor, but above all, I’m the Mayor of Redwood City," she beamed to applause.
Even before the formal nomination process, the mayor was already alluding to then Vice Mayor Aguirre’s nomination to the mayoral job, in his and in the reception before the city council meeting.
Formally on the dais, Ira thanked Aguirre for all her hard work and constantly supporting him in his mayoral role.
Recently elected Vice Mayor Jeff Gee said he was extremely humbled and would continue putting in 100 percent in all his efforts.
“You know I don’t just put a toe in when I start something,” he said. “I jump all in.”
Outgoing Mayor Ira explained his nomination, “Every time I needed someone to step up, even with his busy work life, [Gee] was there.”
Ira added, “In some ways, the selection of vice mayor is more important because you’re deciding who’s going to be mayor.”
In their day jobs, Aguirre is a Spanish professor at , and Gee is the Vice President and General Manager at Swinerton Consulting, a firm that specializes in college campus construction management.
A “Thank You” to Mayor Ira
Before selecting the new mayor and vice mayor, city manager Bob Bell thanked the mayor for his dedication to the community and hard work as mayor, and threw in a couple playful jabs.
Number nine in the top 10 reasons they loved Mayor Jeff Ira, “he had two good ideas while he was mayor,” but then added that the top reason was that he is a “really great, wonderful person.”
Under his leadership, the councilmembers all said, city staff members were able to come to an agreement about and .
“I’ve never seen a more united council,” Ira said. “We may have disagreed on how to get there, but we always arrived at the same conclusion.”
The councilmembers thanked him for his honesty and his passion for serving the community, and even for his mentorship, recently elected Vice Mayor Jeff Gee added.
Councilmember Rosanne Foust used quotes from Abraham Lincoln to describe the type of public servant Ira was: “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”
