Across the Aisle: In his concession speech, restaurateur Rich Pepe says Carmel has a good future with Jason Burnett as mayor: “We’re in really good hands with Jason. He’s a brilliant, brilliant man.” Pepe may bid for Burnett’s now-vacant council seat.
Deluge in Carmel
Sweeping victories for Burnett, Talmage and Beach; Pepe still a council contender.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
New Carmel Mayor-Elect Jason Burnett was met with booming applause when he arrived at a packed Sunset Center lobby Tuesday night after the votes were tallied at City Hall.
The big election-night gathering was no surprise: With more than 50 percent voter turnout, Burnett won 74 percent of the vote – 1,057 to restaurateur Rich Pepe’s 364, by the unofficial count. In 2010, Mayor Sue McCloud beat Adam Moniz with 54 percent.
Burnett’s margin of victory is up 2 percentage points from his 2010 council race. “That means I won over some people in two years of work,” he says. “It says the community wants to go in the direction we laid out in our campaign.”
“Jason’s commitment to community is in his DNA,” says 26-year resident and community activist Carolyn Hardy, who had glued shiny studs to her Burnett, Talmage and Beach campaign buttons. “I think he loves solving problems.”
In the City Council race, incumbent Ken Talmage and architect Victoria Beach each took in more than 900 votes, nearly tripling the votes for their challengers, retired physician Tom Leverone and realtor Bob Profeta.
Talmage took no opportunity to gloat. “It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” he said after hearing the results.
Beach spoke about public process in her acceptance speech. “I hope you come back again to City Hall, and when you see us sitting there behind that formidable piece of furniture, you don’t see it as a divide, but as a drafting table,” she said.
The new council will appoint another new face to take Burnett’s vacant seat within 60 days. “What I’d like to do is have an open process where we solicit the community,” Burnett says.
Pepe says he’d be honored to be considered for the seat. Regardless, he says, he plans to keep pushing for the economic revitalization program laid out in his campaign.
Barbara Brooks, who served on City Council from 1990-94, expects the next highest vote-getter to be appointed to the vacant seat: “That’s been the tradition, and to buck that would be rather difficult,” she says.
In the council race, that could be Leverone, who claimed 320 votes in to the unofficial tally. But with Profeta at his heels with 315, the official results could make all the difference.
Comments
Jason Burnett and the new council will seek to find the right person with the qualifications to balance the talent already on council and who will work well with the rest of the members. And that is the right thing to do. There is no tradition here, folks.
With Leverone's and Profeta's incredibly poor showing in this race, the pressure is off the Council to appoint one of them. They do not have strong enough support in the community to justify elevating them to council. In spite of claims that everyone ran positive campaigns, you would have to take exception to Profeta whose campaign was a continual assault on the Planning Commission, candidate Beach and the existing City Council. Count him out as the grumpy old man. His presence actually helped get Beach elected. And Leverone has very serious health issues.
If you want to apply Brooks' odd logic that the next highest vote getter should be appointed, then you must look to Pepe's tally. He is the next highest. Brooks (a strong Leverone supporter) should be careful what she wishes for, because Pepe would be a disaster up there on the dais with Burnett and Talmage. And, Brooks is wrong about tradition. Years ago when McCloud appointed Gerard Rose to a vacant seat, she claimed it was because he was the next highest vote getter, when in reality he had been part of her slate at the time and her efforts failed to help get him elected, so she just appointed him instead.
Burnett’s margin of victory is up 2 percentage points from his 2010 council race. “That means I won over some people in two years of work,” he says.
A margin of 2 percentage points more in 2012 compared to 2010 reflects fewer ballots cast in 2012 compared to 2010. Numerically, Jason Burnett received 125 less votes in 2012 than in 2010 (1,182 votes in 2010 compared to 1.057 votes (unofficial, not final) in 2012).
"Jason Burnett and the new council will seek to find the right person with the qualifications to balance the talent already on council and who will work well with the rest of the members. And that is the right thing to do," according to Coastvillager .
The downside of having the mayor and council (the “slate” of Burnett, Talmage & Beach) appoint a Carmel resident to fill Jason Burnett’s vacant council seat is that the Council will act like Mayor Burnett’s cabinet as opposed to independently elected representatives of the people. Carmel has endured the last twelve years of unanimous decisions reflecting a form of groupthink which is antithetical to a council which should represent varying points of views and positions.
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