Norby Remains Mayor With Aid of Own Vote

Mayor Chris Norby, the highest vote-getter in last month’s City Council election, gets to keep his gavel one more year. And his voting for himself helped him keep the job.

Norby is the first council member in 15 years to be chosen by his colleagues to serve as mayor for a second consecutive year. The late Wayne Bornhoft was the last to do so.

Norby, 47, was selected over Councilwoman Jan M. Flory on a 3-2 vote. The Brea Olinda High School history teacher said he supports a yearly rotation of the mostly ceremonial post, but that unusual circumstances this year compelled him to vote for himself.

He said that under normal procedure, the mayor pro tem is elevated to mayor. But because Mayor Pro Tem Peter Godfrey did not seek reelection and stepped down from his seat Tuesday, he cannot be mayor. Therefore, Norby said, he felt he should keep the title “in the interest of experience and stability.”

“I can support Jan in the future,” said Norby, who was elected in 1984 and reelected in 1988, 1992 and last month. “I’m sure Jan will get her turn.”

Councilwoman Julie Sa, who last month was reelected to a second term, and newly seated Councilman F. Richard Jones cast the other two votes for Norby.

Norby received 16,039 votes--4,683 more than Jones and 4,823 more than Sa.

Councilman Don Bankhead was chosen unanimously to serve as mayor pro tem.

Flory, the only registered Democrat on the council, said she wanted the mayoralty or the mayor pro tem post in order to “slay the beast of partisan politics . . . which has had this town in its grip for so long.”

“You don’t have to be a Republican or a Democrat to make sure that the streets are swept, that the trees are trimmed, that the libraries are funded and staffed at appropriate levels,” she said.