Unless she runs for the position in a future election, longtime Tustin council member, community volunteer, college administrator and school board trustee Beckie Gomez will never become mayor of her city.
In their final ceremonial appointment, the Tustin council chose to elevate Austin Lumbard from mayor pro tem to mayor – the last time the council will appoint the mayor. Starting next year, Tustin voters will elect their mayor.
After Lumbard was named mayor, during the meeting of Tuesday, Dec. 7, outgoing Mayor Letitia Clark nominated Gomez for the role of mayor pro tem. But the men on the council went with Councilman Barry Cooper, nominated by Councilman Ryan Gallagher, in a 3-2 vote.
Although historically an honorary post that provides no additional power, the title of mayor in Tustin – as in other cities – carries esteem, visibility and some special responsibilities. It also looks good on a resume, particularly for someone with designs on higher office. To a lesser degree, the same is true of the mayor pro tem job.
First elected in 2010, Gomez termed out eight years later. She returned in 2020 – finishing second, behind Clark, out of nine candidates who ran in an at-large election.
The votes cast at the council meeting rang familiar to Gomez, who remains Tustin’s first and only Latinx council member in a city with a population that is 40% Latino.
Gomez was first in line to become mayor pro tem, which in all probability would have made her mayor a year later, in 2014. But that year’s council gave the nod to John Neilsen, who had served as mayor once and was about to term out.
For Gomez, the decision stung.
“I thought, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Gomez recalled in a 2019 interview.
A year later, when Gomez again could have been named mayor pro tem, the council chose Allan Bernstein, who had two years less tenure. Gomez, the only woman on the council at the time, cast the only dissenting vote.
Gomez was named mayor pro tem in 2018, but by then she was scheduled to term out and couldn’t become mayor the next year.
“It reflects poorly on the council that my constituents never got to see me become mayor,” Gomez said two years ago.
The pattern isn’t about Gomez’ credentials. A UCLA graduate, with two master’s degrees, Gomez sits on the Orange County Board of Education while working as dean for the Health Science Division at Cypress College. Over the years, she also has volunteered as a youth softball, basketball and AYSO coach, as well as president of the Tustin Public Schools Foundation.
Clark, too, encountered speed bumps along the way.
“Calling themselves Team Tustin doesn’t exactly scream ‘inclusivity,’” Clark, the only female candidate that year, said at the time.
Still, Clark won one of the three open seats, coming in second behind the avuncular and well-liked Puckett, who served on the council intermittently for decades.
Lumbard lost in that cycle, but got another chance in 2018 when he and Cooper ran unopposed for two open seats.
The council’s fraternal tendencies seemed to continue into 2018 when, arguably, Clark should have been next in line for mayor pro tem. But the spot was handed to Bernstein, who had served as mayor the year before.
However, Clark got her turn this year, becoming Tustin’s first female mayor since 2002, when Tracy Worley-Hagen held the job.
“The council has since become more of a partisan old boys’ club,” Worley-Hagen said two years ago. “The guys have kept the girls from leadership positions. It’s been hard to watch as they rotate among themselves.”
That jockeying might stem more from politics than from gender or race. Clark and Gomez are Democrats, while the men who have long comprised the council majority happen to be Republicans. Meanwhile, Tustin has voted blue in presidential elections since 2008 and voter registration data for Tustin shows Democrats hold a 13 point advantage over Republicans.
Cooper said Tuesday’s vote was based on protocol, noting that he and Lumbard have seniority over Gomez on the current council.
Still, he chided past councils for ignoring what was then Gomez’ place in line.
“Beckie should have been mayor a few years ago,” Cooper said. “She is smart and educated and should have gotten a chance to be at the helm. Would she have done a great job? Absolutely.”
Cooper said he tried to end the long run of male mayors his first night on the council, in 2018. He endorsed Clark for mayor pro-tem, but the bid was not successful.
Regardless of some political differences, Cooper said he “deeply admires” Clark. “Letitia is an unstoppable train, with no brakes. She is headed for Congress or the White House. You can count on it.”
Going forward, the council won’t have a role in selecting the mayor. Last month, the council approved a four-precinct map for district-style elections, with the fifth council member, the mayor, elected at large every four years.
That put Tustin in line with a wave of California cities and other voting districts that in recent years have switched from at-large to district-based elections under threat of litigation. Proponents believe by-district elections result in greater access to political power for people of color and other historically marginalized voting groups.
Gomez said she agrees with the new approach, overall, though she would prefer the mayor serve a two-year term. “Four years is a long time in a small city,” she said.
Gomez waxed philosophical about what might be viewed as one slight after another during her time on the council.
“Things happen for a reason,” she said. “I just don’t know what that reason is yet.”
Might she run for mayor next year, when the job will be awarded by residents, not council members?
“I haven’t thought about it in detail,” Gomez said. “There’s not much time for a decision. Whoever is going to run needs to get out of the stable.
“Let’s see how things shake out.”