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CERRITOS MAYORAL TRANSITION: MARK PULIDO VOTED IN AS MAYOR, SOLANKI MAYOR PRO TEM

Mark Pulido

BY BRIAN HEWS

Cerritos held their annual Mayoral transition Wednesday, with the usually calm event turning to the dark side for a few moments during public comment.

Former mayor Sherman Kappe, during public comment, blasted the council for bypassing mayor pro-tem Naresh Solanki last year.

His rant was squarely aimed at Mayor Hu, Mayor pro tem Pulido, and Councilman Yokoyama. It is no secret that Kappe does not like Hu.

Kappe was referring to last year when Hu was voted in as Mayor by Yokoyama and Pulido, bypassing Solanki.

Solanki was in the wrong place at the wrong time, the recipient of 20 years of snubs by Kappe, Barrows, Chen, Edwards, Ray, etc. of their fellow Democrats.

Kappe did not mention his buddy, former Mayor Bruce Barrows, as reported by HMG-CN, had a “Barrows list” that dictated who Cerritos Mayors should be each year, or that he attempted to invalidate the election of Yokoyama and Hu in 2016.

 

Bruce Barrows Tried to Invalidate the Certification of Election Winners Grace Hu and Frank Yokoyama

 

Or when, in 2013,  in an act of political retribution, then-Mayor Bruce Barrows and Council-persons Carol Chen and new-comer George Ray voted not to reappoint Yokoyama to the Planning Commission.

Yokoyama was nearly elected to Council that year, and the three were attempting to derail his future political career.

The vote caused caused then-Mayor Pro-Tem Mark Pulido to leave the meeting in protest.

 

Cerritos City Council Nixes Reappointment of Planning Commissioner Frank Yokoyama

 

A few minutes after his one-sided speech, Kappe left the room.

Kappe was followed by an angry tirade by resident Jay Gray, who seems to be angry at everything the Council does.

A big fan of Facebook,  Gray continues to think that some Cerritos related  Facebook pages are a viable platform to hold debates, even though several past posts defamed City officials with outright lies.

He chastised Council for blocking him on Facebook.

After the Kappe and Gray rants, Hu said, “All five of us on council respect each other, and we work together well for the betterment of all of our residents in Cerritos.”

When it was time to select the Mayor, Councilmember Yokoyama nominated Pulido while Jim Edwards nominated Solanki. Pulido, Yokoyama and Hu voted for Pulido while Solanki and Edwards voted for Solanki.

When it was time to nominate a mayor pro-tem, in a surprise move, Councilmember Frank Yokoyama quickly nominated Solanki, with Hu seconding Yokoyama’s nomination.

And in a strange move, Solanki, showing lack of appreciation for the Mayor pro tem nomination from Yokoyama and Hu, nominated Edwards.

The vote was called, and once again, showing his lack of appreciation, Solanki, rather than voting for himself, voted for Edwards for Mayor pro tem.

At the end, it was a 3-2 vote, with Pulido, Yokoyama and Hu voting for Solanki.

Edwards, now having little chance to become Mayor, once again addressed the residents saying, “only a couple of instances, in the 61 history of Cerritos, did the council not follow the traditional rotation of officers.”

The other councilmembers ignored the statement and the special meeting moved to honoring outgoing Mayor Hu.

Once Hu received several awards for her service as mayor and the councilmembers gave their comments commending the “terrific service” of Cerritos management, staff, and volunteers, the meeting was adjourned to the CCPA for the annual reception.

 

 

 

 

  • Jas says:

    Many times, councilpersons negotiate with team players, when they want to be mayor, because they may want to run for another office.

    During the 60’-s 80’s, many times, the council appointees sat in the same positions as the elected council, but city had less commissions, compared to today. They when Cho was in office, he played musical chairs for his appointees.

    ………….Mr. Gray, native resident of Cerritos, was correct, podium speakers are not to be silenced/ censored, if so, speaker needs to file complaints with DA Office. Too much of Grace censorship, only demonstrates her alliance with Republic if China and not USA. Grace is not Trumper, so gal, cool it, this is land of democracy and not Chinese politics.

    (???) Why is it the guilty always accuse others of what they themselves cause or do (???)

    Ret. Gloria and Sherman Kappe have always been a standalone political party, well known, both Kappes despise Grace Hu; Shadow Park HOA state Kappes have scorn the association, because of history of poor financials. Kappes belong in Las Vegas and vacate 90703.

    Solanki has never illustrated any input towards healthy conversation during CCC debates, nor has Solanki added to comments from CCC at the end of meetings. He has always been a nothing. Even Artesia India are gravely saddened by his lack of performance. Solanki needs a RX of political Viagra, if he ever wants to be appointed to mayor. Even the DA office has reviewed his archives, they too, state he is a very poor appointee. Solanki family choose to be non present during the mayor transitions, they had reserved seating, but boycotted the transition, as the family does not give hoot about city. Solanki should run for Gardena, Ca. CC.

    Does the current city council even understand English Language??????

    Last night the city council decided to vacate Facebook . I can concur with that. Mark and Frank stated that government is for managing the city; and not for managing socializing. I can concur with that. Facebook will create easy freeway, for bashing and expressing more hatred within the city!

    Sadly, city is spending between $5-$7 million dollars subsidizing Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, isn’t that about socializing also, and has nothing to do with managing government? Less than 9% of the Cerritos residents use CCPA, so hasn’t this become minoot paid subscription for socializing?
    Over and over again, Mark and Frank keep stating, that the city is very severely divided, with interracial issues, political party bias, crime issues, housing/ neighborhood menopause, HOA conflicts, Public Works issues ETC. Again can concur that the city is not going forward, it is going backwards because of the dividing social divisions. Hmmm, so why at each meeting does Mark and Frank continuously praise magnet campuses: Leal Elementary School and Whitney School and Grace Hu Auditorium, that’s only creating deeper divisions, not only with students, but with parents, and within the entire ABC Unified School District? Last mayor transition, only 1 of the surrounding 9 cities, attended the transition, as the surrounding cities hate Cerritos so bad, for host of man made issues created by Cerritos Councils.

    ……..Bottom line……. councilpersons Mark and Frank are both graduates of Whitney Magnet system, but do they really understand English and social issues? I think they’re both extremely deprived from what’s going on in the city. Our declining housing element, is the most blatant form of expressing the deeply seeded issues plaguing 90703.

    Mayor’s transition was only presented by one Ret. Council person, Ms D Needham, who is appointee of Grace Hu. In my 50 yrs of residency, this was one of the worst attended transitions on record. Ret. Kappe showed up, but left in a political dust storm.

    Most cities have the mayor’s transition incorporated in to regular council meeting, to save time and money. Cerritos should discuss this too, since city is so divided and low turnout.

    2018-2019 transition was clouted with cow ding dong dust and snake venom.