Meghan Sahli-Wells Elected Mayor

The acrimonious selection of the vice mayor last year was no where in evidence as the council voted unanimously to elect Meghan Sahli-Wells as Mayor and Goran Eriksson as Vice Mayor.

Outgoing Mayor Small thanked all his fellow councilmembers, "I think we worked together in a fantastic way."

Last year's mayoral election was a "painful and divisive process" according to Eriksson when he was passed over for vice mayor even though he was next in line according to council policy and Sahli-Wells had already served a term as mayor. Eriksson spoke about the council policy that has been affect for years and believed it does the rotation in a "fair and equitable way." Stating that he wanted to stay "true and consistent with my earlier statements." Stating that he wanted to be consistent with the council policy on mayoral election policy he announced he would support the vice mayor moving up to the position of mayor, "I ...hopefully it will bring some unity to our city."

The vote to elect Meghan Sahli-Wells mayor was unanimous as was Eriksson to the position of vice mayor.

The position of mayor and vice mayor are largely ceremonial with the major responsibility to run the council meetings. The mayor still has one vote like the rest of the councilmembers. Council member rotate among the positions unlike other cities where the voters elect the mayor directly.

With next year's election Eriksson will have to be reelected to become mayor.

To watch the election of the mayor and vice mayor can be viewed at:

http://culver-city.granicus.com/player/clip/1459?view_id=1