TEMECULA, CA — Temecula City Councilmember Brenden Kalfus, the current mayor pro tem, was appointed the city’s next mayor, and Jessica Alexander was appointed mayor pro tempore at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Both will be installed in their positions at the first council session in January 2025.
As mayor pro tem, Alexander would assume mayoral duties in the event of Mayor Kalfus’s absence.
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Councilmembers Zak Schwank and James “Stew” Stewart were also appointed respectively as the Temecula Community Services District’s 2025 President and Vice President at that meeting. Council Committee Board assignments are anticipated early in 2025.
During the meeting, the two sitting council members, Stewart and Alexander, were sworn into service. Returning Councilmember Matt Rahn was also sworn in, filling the open seat to serve District 1’s remaining two-year term through 2026.
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As is tradition in Temecula, the outgoing mayor motioned to recommend his successor, Kalfus, as the next mayor and newly reinstalled councilmember Rahn as mayor pro tem.
His motion was not seconded. After some discussion, Alexander spoke up on her behalf, suggesting it was her time to be named mayor pro tem.
“This is my second term,” she said. “This council for the last four years has seen a lot of contentiousness, and the four of us up here have been solid for a year. We have worked hard to be leaders in this community, and I believe I have grown to be able to represent the city.”
Directing comments to Stewart, she said: “In the past, you told me that you would elect me to this position. I ask, as a man of your word, to elect me.”
Councilmember Schwank suggested that this annual decision of selecting the mayor and mayor pro tem “is always awkward. I myself have been passed over.” He added that Alexander had made her case and that the council needed to continue working together.
“This isn’t rocket science,” Schwank said. “It’s local government. We are all capable of doing the job. I’m hoping we can do it together.”
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When no one else did, Alexander presented the motion that Kalfus be appointed mayor and that she be appointed mayor pro tem for 2025, which Schwank seconded.
The council voted unanimously, 5-0, in that decision.
According to the city, the mayor and mayor pro tempore positions are ceremonial and not directly elected. Instead, the City Council selects them from sitting council members. Both typically serve for one calendar year.
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