San Fernando Appoints Its 1st Female Mayor : Politics: Rosa Chacon is bypassed in a controversial 3-2 council vote. With Latinas in top posts, the small city makes history.

Bypassing the mayor pro tem, the City Council has chosen Joanne Baltierrez, a political neophyte, as the city’s first female mayor in a move some say will further polarize the city’s Latino leaders.

Baltierrez, elected to the council less than a year ago, was named mayor by a 3-2 council vote Monday night.

Rosa Chacon, mayor pro tem and a council member for three years, also was nominated, but lacked support from the majority.

Anticipating Chacon’s defeat, nine residents, including a former mayor and a former councilwoman, urged the council to appoint Chacon mayor. They cited her experience and what they called the “tradition” of appointing the previous year’s mayor pro tem to the honorary post.

“The people are so riled up,” said Virginia Barragan, a Chacon supporter and chairwoman of the San Fernando Residents Council, before the meeting. “This issue should not even be taking City Hall time. This is the trouble we’ve been having with City Hall lately.

“Those in power are afraid of appointing Rosa. They think they will be giving up power. People don’t trust anymore.”

Despite the disappointment of some who wanted Chacon named to the one-year post, history was made in the small general-law city, which now has a woman mayor and a woman mayor pro tem for the first time since its incorporation in 1911.

“This is an opportunity to make sure all voices are heard,” said Baltierrez, a 37-year-old single mother of three and director of a nonprofit agency. “The voices of this city are telling me not to compromise, and compromise I will not.”

Baltierrez vowed to use her influence as mayor to bring business and city government closer together and try to start a youth literacy program.

San Fernando’s population of roughly 24,000 is 83% Latino, according to U.S. Census data. The City Council is made up of four Latinos--two men and two women--and Doude Wysbeek, a Dutch emigre.

Though San Fernando has had Latinos serve as mayor and mayor pro tem in the past, the appointment of a Latin woman is part of a slowly growing trend in California politics, experts say. “Latinas are still underrepresented among Hispanic elected officials,” said Arturo Vargas of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “Latinas are more likely to be appointed to school boards than to legislative or political leadership positions.”

But increasingly, Vargas said, smaller cities with large Latin populations are more willing to elect Latinas to prominent positions, as evidenced in Bell Gardens, population 61,000, where a Latina was recently appointed mayor.

But Baltierrez’s appointment did not go uncontested. Councilman Raul Godinez first nominated Chacon. But Ray Ojeda nominated Baltierrez, who with support from Wysbeek voted for herself and was declared mayor.

Later, Chacon was unanimously elected to a second term as mayor pro tem. In the mayor’s absence, the mayor pro tem chairs council meetings and represents the city at civic functions and other events.

Though Chacon’s reappointment was viewed as a conciliatory move, the action placed two Latinas in significant, if largely symbolic, leadership roles in city government.

Though Godinez chastised Baltierrez for not supporting Chacon for mayor, Baltierrez said she could take on her new duties with a clear conscience.

“I’m qualified, educated and I’ve been through a tough leadership training program,” Baltierrez said. “I’ve worked to establish relationships between the business community and the city staff. People were calling on me to accept the responsibility, and I have.”