Sunnyvale residents had the final say in the Nov. 4 Sunnyvale City Council election when they chose newcomer Melinda Hamilton over incumbent Vice Mayor Tim Risch for Council Seat 7. The result may be a significant power shift in the city council.

Some say Risch and council members Manuel (Manny) Valerio, Pat Vorreiter and Jack Walker, who are termed out, have unfairly dominated the council for the past few years.

Others say the four who are leaving have been the only ones with the courage to make the hard decisions. Suzi Blackman, president/CEO of the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce said, "I do believe the four people who are going out were willing to stand on the tough decisions. The other three were a lot more susceptible to the people sitting in the room and the vocal minority."

Residents voted in experienced planning commissioners Dean Chu, Otto Lee and Ron Swegles over the more inexperienced (in city commissions) Pete Richards, James Fussell and Michael Flores for the three other seats on the council.

The three voted in were involved with the passage of the downtown plan earlier this year and have expressed an interest in restoring integrity to what some call a "dysfunctional" council.

But it's hard for anyone to predict just yet how the future council will line up politically when handling the upcoming year's big issues, including the budget crisis and the downtown plan. The new council members say they want to move past the divisiveness of the current council.

The results of the council election will be accepted during the council meeting on Nov. 18, when the winners will be sworn in and join Mayor Julia Miller and councilmen Fred Fowler and John Howe on the new council.

Since Risch was not reelected, the next council member with the most seniority, Howe, is likely to be voted in as mayor at the Nov. 18 meeting. As the candidate who recieved the highest number of votes, Councilman-elect Chu will serve as vice mayor, pending the vote of the new council.

This is the third time in Sunnyvale history that an incumbent lost the election. The first time was in 1975, when Larry Stone was elected to the council in circumstances similar to today's. Stone had led an opposition effort to the Town Center Mall plans with the grass-roots group ORCHARDS.

Similarly, Hamilton was instrumental in organizing the Friends of Sunnyvale group that in turn has affected the current downtown plan.

Referring to her defeat of an incumbent, Hamilton said, "I seem to be good at doing the impossible. No one ever thought we'd get the signatures either for the ballot initiatives." The Friends of Sunnyvale submitted petitions to the city to put three initiatives on the November ballot that would have regulated redevelopment in the city if passed. The initiatives never made it to the ballot because city staff misinformed the group of the correct number of signatures needed for the petitions to be considered.

Hamilton, who sees herself as representing the community voice of Sunnyvale, suspects she won the election because she had walked the precinct not only for her campaign but also to collect signatures for the initiatives.

"When I was out talking to people, a common complaint was that people were upset with the council, which is very fractured. Things had gotten so contentious on the dais and people were disenchanted with the city's leadership," said Hamilton.

But the race for Seat 7 had grown contentious as well.

Because of cuts to public safety that Risch approved, he lost key endorsements from county supervisors and Sunnyvale's Public Safety Officers Association. In fact, the PSOA aggressively campaigned to oust Risch, but not only because of his voting record.

Risch clashed with the association several times throughout the campaign after Risch questioned public safety's handling of a teen fight downtown. And at the association's request, the mayor appointed a subcommittee two weeks before the election to review Risch and city manager Robert LaSala's actions regarding the investigation into a the public safety operation.

The subcommittee found that neither Risch nor LaSala had violated the city charter, city council code of conduct or the city council code of ethics. But the committee did find that Risch, while not violating any legal provisions, showed poor judgment in the wording of questions that were forwarded to public safety officers as part of his enquiry into the operation in question.

Some may attribute Risch's loss in the council race to the bout with public safety, but Hamilton said her win has more to do with the dissatisfaction residents have with the current council.

"People are unhappy with the way things have been going," said Hamilton, a native of Sunnyvale.

Councilman Fowler said many residents feel the council majority had lost touch with the community. "Tim became the symbol of the council majority in people's eyes. His campaign was all about trying to tell people that things in Sunnyvale were very good. But that just motivated people to vote for change instead," said Fowler.

The election may prove to be a turning point for the city council, whose current members have clashed on even the most uncontroversial of subjects. For example, in a recent meeting the council bickered some 45 minutes over the placement of one section in the council agenda packet.

Vorreiter, Walker and Valerio have traditionally voted in blocks, Risch often voting with them. Miller, Howe and Fowler have usually voted together. These typical alliances have resulted in many 4-3 decisions.

"I've never thought that having unanimous decisions is the mark of a good council," said Vorreiter.

Vorreiter suspects the clash is representative of a difference in core values. She said the fact that she and Walker and Valerio all came on at the same time (1995) has something to do with it. "We don't collaborate on how we're going to vote. We just share the same value structure," Vorreiter said.

Part of that value structure is a difference in the philosophy of the role the council plays in city government. Some council members such as Vorreiter say the city staff knows best how to manage each department, whereas other council members take a more hands-on approach.

This difference in value structure may have led other council members to feel left out, including Fowler, who came on board the council in 1997.

"There was definitely an in crowd and an out crowd on the council, which I have noticed since I was elected. There was never a sense of consensus. We just had people who were making sure they had at least four votes to do what they wanted," said Fowler.

Fowler said a lack of respect for each other's ideas led to contempt and finally to the bitter sniping and backbiting that is apparent on the current council.

While 4-3 votes are not uncommon on the current council, Walker disagreed that he is a part of a voting block. "If you go back and look at the record, I voted against Pat, Manny and Tim on a lot of the issues. Over the years I've disputed the charge that I was voting in the block," Walker said.

But Walker does admit there are some personality clashes on the council. "I've never let any personality conflicts get in the way of good decision making," he said.

Fowler disagreed and said personality conflicts have disrupted council business. "I think some of the other council members discount opinions based on who's expressing the opinion," said Fowler.

The city budget that was recently passed is an example of a 4-3 split and the difference in philosophy about the city council's role in governing the city. The council approved the budget with Miller, Fowler and Howe dissenting.

As a way to restore some public-safety positions as well as other services slated to be cut, Fowler proposed removing several survey projects as well as using reserve funds.

Fowler's budget proposal failed, with Risch, Walker, Vorreiter and Valerio voting against it.

Vorreiter said she did not support the proposal in totality, though she agreed with some aspects. "Our staff are more familiar with what they can cut while still maintaining the services we're accustomed to. I'm inclined to rely on their judgment," Vorreiter said after the meeting in June.

The city council should not micromanage city staff, Vorreiter said.

"The role of the city council is to set policy and allow our talented staff to do their job. That doesn't mean we have to agree with staff recommendations. But I hope the new council will respect our staff in the way that I have," said Vorreiter.

Chamber president Blackman agreed. "I hope they don't second-guess every decision staff makes. Whether you spend $10 here or there doesn't solve the budget crisis," Blackman said.

But Fowler hopes the new council will take a more hands-on approach. "We might see council subcommittees to examine better ways of dealing with the budget reform, even with the way the council's agenda gets set. If we take control of the agenda, then we'll never have a situation where we have two hot items on the same night where people have to wait until midnight before their particular issue gets heard," said Fowler.

As all four of the recently elected council candidates have also expressed concern over the removal of public safety positions, Howe and Fowler both suspect the next council will work to restore those positions in the near future.

The incoming council members are aware of the contentiousness on the current council and have pledged to work together to prevent such personality conflicts from rising to a boiling point.

Councilman-elect Swegles said the difference between the current council and the future council is respect. "We all respect each other and trust each other. The important thing is to focus on the issues at hand and not let things get personal," said Swegles.

Fowler said he looks forward to working with the new council. "There will be differences of opinion with seven strong-willed people with different senses of value. But I don't think we'll disagree on things simply because of personality. We won't ever discount an opinion based solely on who's expressing the opinion," said Fowler.

Howe said the recent election was like an earthquake to the city government. "For the longest time, four people basically ruled the city. The majority changed in one day. But in the long run, we'll have a better working council that's much more in tune with the community," Howe said.

Only time will tell.