Mayor Selected After Ordinance Is Rescinded : La Canada Flintridge: The City Council picks Jack Hastings after abolishing a law that would have awarded the post to another councilman.

Veteran City Council member Jack Hastings became mayor of La Canada Flintridge on Tuesday, beating Councilman Chris Valente after the council rescinded an ordinance Monday that would have made Valente a shoo-in for the post.

Hastings was sworn in Tuesday along with incumbent Councilwoman Joan Feehan and Public Safety Commissioner Jim Edwards. Hastings, who was appointed in 1985 to a three-year council term and served as mayor pro tem in 1987, was selected mayor on a 4-1 vote.

Valente was also chosen to serve a second year as mayor pro tem. In 1988 Valente beat Hastings, who was elected last week to a different seat on the council.

Hastings’ selection as mayor followed a controversial decision at Monday’s council meeting. The outgoing council voted 3 to 1 to abolish a 1982 ordinance that would have given the mayor’s post to Valente based on a rotation system.

Valente abstained from Monday’s vote. O. Warren Hillgren, who introduced the motion to revoke the ordinance, said it had tied the hands of the council in selecting a mayor.

“All we are trying to do is create a level playing field,” said Hillgren, who was mayor four times during his 14 years on the council. He said the ordinance had been advisory only, and the council on three occasions had chosen not to follow it.

But Councilman Ed Phelps called Hillgren’s motion a “grandstanding maneuver” designed to clear the way for Hastings to become mayor.

The ordinance required that the mayor pro tem become mayor the following year unless the mayor pro tem declined or the council elected another member by a four-vote majority. The policy also barred council members from serving as mayor more than once during a single four-year term.

Each year the council elects a mayor and a mayor pro tem to a one-year term. Both positions are largely ceremonial. The mayor represents the city at many official functions. The mayor pro tem serves in the mayor’s place when they mayor is unavailable.

In 1989 the ordinance caused Hillgren to resign from his mayoral post after just two weeks when it was pointed out that he had already been mayor once during his term. Edmund Krause then became mayor in Hillgren’s place.

Krause and Hillgren, whose seats on the council expired Tuesday, chose not to seek reelection. Both received several awards Tuesday in recognition of their service on the council since the city was incorporated in 1976. Hillgren received a framed letter of commendation from President Bush.

Krause, 89, was the nation’s oldest mayor. He will be honored by the La Canada Flintridge Kiwanis Club on Wednesday at an 11 a.m. reception at Descanso Gardens.