For the past several months, Lucia Wu, president of the Moon Festival, and Councilwoman Kris Wang—who were once friends—have been battling over who will run this year's Moon Festival. And the fight is intensifying. At the July 19 city council meeting, Wu angrily confronted Wang about Wang's recent statements questioning how much the festival is benefitting the city. Wu asked Wang for a public apology. And since the meeting, Wu has said she is considering a recall movement against Wang.

The war between the two began in February when Wang suggested that the Hsinchu Sister City Committee—a Cupertino-based organization that works in collaboration with the city in Taiwan—take over the operation of the Moon Festival. Wu and the Moon Festival Committee have run the festival since its inception five years ago.

But since February, the rancor over the festival's leadership has only grown. The festival's chairman, Dennis Wan, resigned, protesting Wang's efforts to take over, and Wu appointed her daughter, Jennifer Chang, as the new chairwoman. Wu complained that someone in the city changed the Moon Festival contact person listed on the city's website from Wan to David Fong. Wu said Wang had appointed Fong to run an Autumn Moon Festival, which was to take place the same day as this year's Moon Festival.

Some have accused Wang of using her political clout as a councilwoman to take over the festival. Others have said the fight is getting too personal and is not about benefiting the community.

Wang has said that since the Moon Festival is in Cupertino, it should be run by Cupertino residents, citing the fact that Wu and other Moon Festival Committee members live outside the city. Wang uses as her model the Cherry Festival, which is run by Cupertino's Japanese sister city committee. She said that since the city partially funds the Moon Festival, it should give more money back to the city. She contends that her first concern is for the city, and she said this is not a personal issue.

For a time, the Moon Festival Committee members thought things had simmered down. The issue hadn't come up at council meetings and the committee had heard nothing from Wang. The committee returned to business as usual, preparing for the festival. "We thought [Wang] had dropped the whole thing," Wu said.

Then came the July 6 council meeting when Wang expressed concern about how the city's six festivals benefited Cupertino. She called for another look at monetary allocations to these festivals and said that the city should examine how much the festivals give back to the community. Wang specifically focused on the Moon Festival.

This rekindled Wu's rage.

At the July 19 city council meeting, Wu challenged Wang's allegations that the festival is not benefiting the city. Wu said the Moon Festival gives comparatively as much back to the city as the other festivals. She also invited Wang to come to a Moon Festival meeting on July 20 to explain her July 6 statements to the festival's committee.

Wang did not attend the meeting, which was ironically held at her old campaign headquarters in Saratoga. There Wu showed the 20-plus people who showed up for the event a video of the July 6 council meeting so they could hear Kris Wang's statements about the festival.

After viewing the video, the committee as a whole decided there was a lot of work to be done, which included the possibility of a recall campaign against Wang.