Los Gatos Weekly-Times Jack Lucas Council names Lucas mayor, snubs Gambord and Knight By Jeff Kearns It looks like payback time in Monte Sereno. When councilmembers sat down Dec. 1 to elect one of their own as mayor and vice-mayor, Joel Gambord and Gordon Knight found themselves on the sidelines--for the third year in a row. By a 3-2 vote, Jack Lucas became the mayor for the fourth time in his 14 years on the council, and outgoing mayor Suzanne Jackson was elected vice-mayor. Lucas most recently served as mayor from 1996-97. The council usually follows an unofficial rotation, in which the vice-mayor takes the mayoral spot, and another councilmember becomes vice-mayor. The only thing the city code says about the offices is that no mayor can serve two years in a row. Outgoing councilwoman Dorothea Bamford was the previous vice-mayor. The mayor has no more power than the other councilmembers, and is still only one vote out of five, but whoever holds the gavel is able to influence agendas and control council meetings. Both Jackson and Lucas said they weren't comfortable voting for Gambord or Knight, and Barbara Nesbet, who was sworn in before the meeting, told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times she didn't want to comment on her vote. "Their actions speak for themselves," was all Gambord wanted to say. Had the election turned out differently, with one of the three candidates backed by Gambord and Knight elected instead of the three winners, Jackson and Lucas would probably have been the ones left out in the cold. "It was a bit spiteful, frankly, but I'm not upset by it," Knight said. Jackson nominated Lucas, and Lucas nominated Jackson. If the pattern repeats itself next year, both Gambord and Knight could leave office in 2000 without ever having served as mayor and vice-mayor, which would be unprecedented in the city's history. "We felt Joel's efforts and energy and money worked so hard against Suzanne and myself that we just couldn't turn around and support him," Lucas said. "You get elected based on your performance and ability to be a team player." "I didn't have any confidence in Joel and I didn't know what kinds of things he would be pushing," Jackson said. "The main deciding factor was the hit piece," she added, referring to a mailer that Gambord and Knight sent out 10 days before the election denouncing her and Lucas. "In a city this size, people know what's going on, and the stuff that was in [the mailer] was somewhere between a lie, a fabrication and stretching the truth. He's vendetta-driven." In his opening comments, Lucas said he planned to schedule "Coffee with the Mayor" meetings on a monthly basis. Except for the first meeting, which will be held on Jan. 8, the coffees will take place on the first Friday of each month, Lucas said. Lucas also said that he would act as the facilitator for the 1999 goal-setting session early next year. Before last year's session, the council squabbled extensively over whether or not to hire a professional facilitator for the session at $3,000 per day. Jackson insisted that the council needed a neutral third-party to get anything done, but Gambord decried the expense. The consultant was hired. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, December 9, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.