Colusa City Councilman Tom Reishe will serve out his 20th year on the dais as mayor of the city.
The City Council handed the gavel back to Reische on a unanimous vote on Dec. 7, their last meeting in 2021, knowing he is not planning to seek reelection in November 2022.
Reische, whose final term expires exactly one year from now in December 2022, was first elected to the Colusa City Council in 2002, when he received the most votes in a five-candidate race for two seats, which were vacated when Councilwoman Mary Winters and former Mayor John Rogers opted not to seek reelection.
Reische has served multiple stints as mayor and has seen a broad turnover of council members and management staff during his tenure.
The longtime Councilman announced when he sought reelection in 2018 that his fourth term would be his last.
“I know I said that before, but this time I really mean it,” Reishce said, after his last swearing in.
Newcomer Councilman Daniel Vaca, who was elected to the council in 2020, will serve his first stint as Colusa’s vice-mayor (Pro Tempore) in 2022.
Outgoing Mayor Josh Hill nominated Vaca to the post. Vaca was elected to his first term in office in 2020, and just completed his first year on the dais.
“I really appreciate how involved he’s been,” Hill said. “It will only make him more involved and improve the knowledge we have as a council.”
Hill said it was an honor and privilege to serve two consecutive years as mayor – a rarity for the Colusa council – and thanked the staff for helping him learn and grow.
Hill was first appointed to the City Council to fill the seat of the late Kirk Kelleher, who died unexpectedly in March 2018, and was reelected the following November.
Reische, as the 2020 vice-mayor, would likely have rotated into the mayor’s seat for 2021, but had suggested Hill remained at the helm during the pandemic because of his ease with the kind of technology utilized during the lockdown.
“With the difficulties we had in 2020 and 2021, the two years (Hill) was mayor, he did an exceptional job,” Reische said.
The Colusa City Council has several irons in the fire for 2022, including moving forward with developing a plan to spend down its $1.4 million American Relief Plan funds over the next four years, beginning in January, and seeking out infrastructure and recreation grants.
The council also plans to update the city’s cannabis ordinance, once it passes through the Colusa Planning Commission, and will consider whether to allow dispensaries within the city limits.
Probably the most difficult for the council to tackle, on constitutional grounds, will be dealing with Colusa’s growing homeless population.
Officials said there is obvious public pressure to keep transients, including those who have recently flocked to town, from degrading the quality of life in Colusa.
“They’re not just sitting around anymore,” Vaca said. “Now they are starting to get into and affect other things, and they are not cleaning up after themselves anymore. It’s getting pretty nasty.”
City officials, however, admitted the challenges that dealing with transients and the homeless present, because of constitutional protections that guarantee a person’s right to panhandle (First Amendment), freedom of movement (Fifth Amendment), and prohibits unusual punishment (Eighth Amendment), such as criminalizing homeless behavior, such as sleeping on public property.
In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s task force on the homeless called for a “legally enforceable mandate” that would force municipalities to house the growing number of homeless Californians, similar to New York City’s “right to shelter” law, which could burden cities and counties if funding is not awarded to fulfill the requirements. ■