Last night the City of Los Alamitos held its annual city council organizational meeting, bringing to a close a turbulent council year which brought the glare of the national news spotlight to this small Orange County city. In council action entirely devoid of the controversies which dominated council meetings earlier in 2009, veteran council member Marilynn Poe, previously the Mayor Pro Tem, was elected the new mayor.

The controversy for this council began with the elections of November 2008. This hotly contested election saw claims of dirty tricks and special interest campaign funding, and set up a power shift on the council. At the organizational meeting in December 2008, Mayor Pro Tem Gerri Mejia, expected her fellow council members to follow tradition and elevate her to mayor. But, the election voted out her supporters on the council and she lost the job.

This put Mejia into a minority role which often resulted in 4/1 votes with her casting the dissenting vote. Just as that trouble was reaching a peak, former mayor Dean Grose thought it would be funny to e mail some of his friends the now infamous White House watermelon patch cartoon.

This racially insensitive missive generated howls of protest from the locals, and all across the country. At the council meeting in March, in front of television news cameras and radio microphones, Grose’s resignation letter was read. Grose not only resigned as mayor, which was expected, he also resigned his council seat.

Troy Edgar was elected by the council to replace Grose as mayor. But that certainly did not end the controversy. Only minutes after Edgar was elected mayor, he was handed a recall petition by some unhappy citizens.

With Edgar now serving as mayor, the next challenge for the council was to fill the seat vacated by Grose’s resignation. After some unsuccessful attempts to find common ground on whether to hold a special election or have the council appoint a replacement, the council eventually appointed Dean Zarkos on a 4/1 vote with Mejia dissenting.

Those were only the headline making items. The council had a few other items to deal with, such as a “structural budget deficit”, hiring a new city manager, and hiring a new city attorney. Gradually however, the council managed to move toward a more collaborative mindset and actually started agreeing with each other.

By last night’s meeting, there was a clear air of seeking agreement in the council chambers. When it came time to elect the new mayor, Mejia was quick to nominate Poe, even though the two had most often been on different sides of the issues earlier in the year. There were no other nominations, no discussion, and no descent.

Poe immediately took the gavel and opened the meeting to nominations for mayor pro tem. Ken Stephens was quickly nominated. Likewise, he was elected with no competition, no discussion, and no dissention.

Troy Edgar began his tenure as mayor under the glare of the news media, hostile public opinion, calls for his immediate resignation, a council which appeared at times to be on the verge of dysfunctional, budget deficits, and vacancies in key city positions. As he transitions the mayor’s gavel to Marilynn Poe, the city and its council seem to be on a much better footing. ? The budget is balanced, the positions have been filled, and the council seems collaboratively focused on the people’s business.