The Colusa City Council reorganized their leadership at their last meeting in December, pegging four-time Mayor Greg Ponciano to take the helm in 2023.
The unanimous decision to seat Ponciano for his fifth stint as mayor was made after a nomination to select 2022 Mayor Pro Tem Daniel Vaca to serve as head of the council failed to gain momentum.
Vaca, who conducted a small portion of the last meeting, served as second in command under Mayor Thomas Resiche, who lost his reelection bid for a fifth term on the council, following a tumultuous two years in which decisions were made largely behind closed doors (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), elected officials thumbed their noses at policies and procedures, and senior staff were allowed to spend taxpayer money lavishly without adequate oversight.
Although public pressure forced the council to change course in 2021 and 2022 by terminating the city’s costly economic development director/event planner, implementing new policies and procedures, hiring a qualified grant writer, and admitting to the findings in a scathing grand jury report, the controversy may have been too much for voters to keep Reische and former Mayor Josh Hill on the dais in the Nov. 8 election.
The reorganization of the City Council is a near repeat of the 2012 power shift that seated Ponciano to his first term in office and his immediate stint as mayor pro tem, which followed a bitterly contested election that ousted two incumbents amid the controversy over failed economic development policies and an unpopular city administration.
Also evidence that the direction of Colusa in 2023 could change was the selection on Dec. 20 of Garofalo to immediately serve as mayor pro tem on a 3-2 vote, with Vaca and Councilwoman Denise Conrado dissenting.
Colusa City Clerk Shelly Kittle had administered the oath of office to Garofalo, who had served on the grand jury investigating the city, and former Planning Commission Chairman Ryan Codorniz, just moments earlier to replace Reische and Hill on the council.
Prior to the newcomers taking their seats and the selection of new leadership, the council recognized Reische and Hill for their service to the citizens of Colusa.
Reische was first elected to the City Council for a four-year term in 2002, when he received the most votes of five candidates running for two open seats. He successfully ran for three additional terms, served six times as mayor, and sat on numerous committees and commissions.
After formally announcing in 2018 that he would seek only one final term in office, Reische went forward with a surprising reelection bid for a fifth term in 2022, but came in with just under 15 percent of the vote in a contest with four candidates.
“I want to thank the residents of the City of Colusa for allowing me to sit here for as long as I’ve been able to,” Reische said, as one of his final duties as mayor, before he recognized the city’s staff for their service.
“You make our job up here so much easier,” Reische told them. “So, I just wanted to say thank you.”
The City Council also recognized Hill, who was appointed to fill the seat left vacant by the sudden death of Councilman Kirk Kelleher on Jan. 17, 2018. Hill was elected the following November as the top vote getter among three candidates, including Reische, who were running for two open seats.
Hill was selected by unanimous vote of the council on Dec. 3, 2019, to serve as mayor for 2020 and was selected to serve again in 2021, with Reische serving as mayor pro tem both years. Hill also served on numerous committees and commissions.
Hill thanked the public and city staff for supporting him through his city council journey.
“I grew a lot; I learned a lot,” Hill said. “I had a lot of fun. I loved working with the city and really enjoyed representing our community… I want to wish the best of luck for the new candidates for their upcoming years on council, and always remember that Colusa grows great people.”
At the first meeting in January, Ponciano is expected to make a number of committee and commission appointments as the council continues to reorganize.
Hill was the sole Colusa representative on the Colusa County Transportation Commission in 2022, but Colusa will rotate with the City of Williams for two seats in 2023.
Hill and Reische also served together as the city’s cannabis ad hoc committee, which had been working the past few months to develop recommendations to the City Council as to the number of cannabis companies and retail pot shops that should be allowed to operate within city limits.
The ad hoc committee’s progress had not been made public by the end of its members’ terms, which will likely prompt Ponciano to start the process from scratch to avoid the appearance of “hub and spoke,” a form of serial meeting in which a conduit relays information from closed meetings to other elected officials, a problem Colusa has demonstrated in the past, according to public records obtained by the Pioneer Review. ■