People / Spotlight on achievers

Tom Carroll, who has been on the City Council since 1994, is the new mayor.

The other four members of the council unanimously elected him this week to the one-year position and at the same time chose Councilwoman Mary Ann Jones as mayor pro tem.

The election of the mayor and mayor pro tem followed the swearing in of two newly elected council members: Anna Piercy and Tim Keenan. They succeed Cecilia L. Age and Gail H. Kerry, who were barred by term limits from seeking reelection this year.

In a brief speech after being elected mayor, Carroll pointed out that the mayoral position is largely ceremonial.

“It’s like being the lead dog” on a dog-sled team, he quipped. “The view is just a little bit better.”

Carroll, 64, won election to the council after working at the grass-roots level in 1993 to defeat a proposal for a card club in the city. He was a leader in the organization called Cypress Citizens Against Card Clubs.

Jones and Keenan also were leaders in the anti-card-club campaign.

The new mayor served on the city’s Fiscal Advisory Committee in 1993 and 1994. He was director of finance and accounting at TRW Space and Electronics, based in Redondo Beach, before his retirement in 1989.

Carroll earned his bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 1959 and his master’s degree in finance from USC in 1972. He is also a 1980 graduate of UCLA’s executive program.