Deadlocked Santa Monica City Council Unable to Pick Mayor : Politics: None of the members are able to win the four votes needed. City attorney determines that Judy Abdo should stay in the office for now.

With divided political alliances hopelessly deadlocked, the Santa Monica City Council was unable this week to elect a new mayor from within its ranks.

The council, with three newly inaugurated members, tried repeatedly to elect a mayor Tuesday, but none of the council members could garner the necessary four votes to win the largely ceremonial position.

After about 45 minutes of fast-paced voting on a mix of candidates, it became clear that no member would be elected, nor was any pair of council members acceptable to the full council to split the two-year term. The only agreement the council was able to reach was to table the election until next Tuesday.

The deadlock resulted in the first time in the city’s 119-year history that a council failed to elect a mayor, although in recent years the council has found it necessary or preferable to divide the term between two members.

When an impasse appeared likely in the days before the vote, the city attorney’s office reviewed the City Charter and determined that Judy Abdo should continue as mayor until another council member wins the post.

For several years, the council has been split between the entrenched Santa Monicans for Renters Rights and the Coalition for a Safe Santa Monica.

This year, although the renters rights group controls four seats on the seven-member council, the votes for mayor were divided between council members Paul Rosenstein and Ken Genser.

The Coalition for a Safe Santa Monica supports only three council members--Robert Holbrook, Asha Greenberg and Ruth Ebner--and has not been able to muster a vote from a council member backed by the renters group to elect one of them mayor.

The council made more than a dozen nominations, trying to mix and match candidates to split the two-year term. But in no instance could Genser win more than two votes to serve two years as mayor, nor would he cast the necessary fourth vote for Rosenstein to win a two-year term.

Admitting to be the spoiler to a Rosenstein win, Genser said later that he would only vote for Rosenstein if the two-year mayoral term was split between the two of them.

In the days leading up to Tuesday’s vote, some council members were actively negotiating to see who would wield the mayor’s gavel.

Holbrook, who was the top vote-getter Nov. 8 and a senior member of the coalition, said he had received several calls from mayoral hopefuls Genser and Rosenstein. Although they wanted his help in winning the election, Holbrook said, they were not able to make any concessions to the coalition “because SMRR would be upset,” he said.

Holbrook said that if the council refused to back him for a full term as mayor, he would be willing to split the term with Rosenstein. The compromise between the renters group and the coalition might garner four votes--if Rosenstein would agree, Holbrook said.

Rosenstein, though, said he was not willing to split a term. He said that if he agreed to cast his vote for Holbrook to serve as mayor for one year it would adversely affect his already tenuous relationship with the renters group.

“It’s not worth it to be mayor . . . to cast my lot with another camp,” he said.