Perry passed over for vice mayor Perry passed over for vice mayor (January 07, 2005)

By Jon Wiener

What was supposed to be a ceremonial city council meeting to honor outgoing council members and recognize new ones turned heated Tuesday night.

As a packed house looked on in surprise, city council members broke with tradition and voted Nick Galiotto in as vice mayor 4-3, despite indications that it was Greg Perry's turn to serve as second-in-command.

After Matt Neely was officially named mayor as expected, Council member Mike Kasperzak surprised his colleagues by nominating Galiotto for vice mayor.

"I definitely take some offense," said Perry, accusing Kasperzak of ignoring a council policy regarding election of the vice mayor.

Kasperzak initially said that he felt "comfortable" with Galiotto, but when Perry complained, the discussion turned nasty.

"I'm sorry; I did not want to go here this evening," Kasperzak told Perry, before accusing him of misrepresenting the council on a Valley Transportation Authority advisory board.

He later added, "I can not in good conscience put you in position to be leader of this city."

Tuesday's vote means that Perry will have to win re-election in 2006 before he can serve as mayor.

Galiotto earned only three votes on the first ballot from himself, Kasperzak and new Council member Laura Macias, with new Council member Tom Means and former Mayor Matt Pear abstaining and Neely and Perry against.

On a second vote, Kasperzak, Galiotto, Pear and Macias all threw their support to Galiotto, electing him as the city's vice mayor.

The council has used a rotation system under which the most senior council member who had not yet served as mayor becomes mayor, and the next most senior serves as vice mayor. The vice mayor typically ascends to mayor the following year. Ties are broken by order of finish in the most recent election.

Neely, Perry and Galiotto were all first elected to the council in 2002. But Galiotto had won a two-year term, and the council decided to give priority to the other two for winning four-year terms.

Perry's outspokenness on controversial issues, particularly those having to do with ethics, has often created political problems for him with the rest of the council. In addition to being critical of the BART-to-San-Jose project, Perry also was the first to make the Shoreline VIP tickets a public issue.

During this year's election, Perry's was the most publicly involved of all returning council members, accusing former candidate Margaret Abe-Koga and Macias of violating campaign finance rules.
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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