WILLITS, CA., 1/23/25 — The Willits City Council met Wednesday night to discuss a potential pay raise for councilmembers and who should fill the vacant seat left by former Councilmember Greta Kanne, who resigned in December, two years before her term was set to expire.
At 6:30 p.m., the council convened in front of a packed chamber on East Commercial Street in Willits to hear two-minute interviews from eight community leaders who hoped to replace Kanne on the council.
The Willits City Council consists of five members, with one serving as mayor and another as vice mayor after being appointed by their fellow councilmembers. Longtime resident Bruce Burton was selected to fill the vacant council seat in a 3-1 vote and will serve the remaining two years of Kanne’s term.
Burton, a former mayor of Willits and past president of the Willits Rotary Club with strong ties to the small business community, faced opposition from Councilmember Matthew Alaniz, a newly elected councilmember who expressed concerns about the same individuals repeatedly cycling through local government.
“Everybody has their reasons to pick someone, and I was hoping to have a female on the team,” Alaniz said in an interview.
“I was hoping to have some different experiences, and I wanted new people. We had one female candidate, Robin Leler, that was defeated during the general election, and our other female council member resigned,” Alaniz said.
He explained that in November’s election, Leler lost the council seat to Alaniz by just five votes. Alaniz had proposed placing Leler on a shortlist for the recently vacated seat, but the rest of the council disagreed.
“I believed that the person who lost should be on the list for reconsideration,” he said. “She just lost, and we just had an election. But all of that was debated, and some people added that it wouldn’t be great to pick someone because of their gender.”
Some meeting attendees also argued that just because a candidate nearly won in the last election doesn’t mean they should automatically be nominated for the next vacant seat.
“Then it’s almost like you owe them,” Alaniz said. “We don’t want to be setting someone up to fail.”
Regarding the potential pay raise, the City Council decided not to vote on it. Alaniz emphasized that, in his view, it would be bad optics and that while the board may consider a pay increase in the future, now is not the right time.
“The pay raise idea wasn’t even seconded,” Alaniz explained. “I just got elected 60 days ago, so I’m not going to vote for a pay raise. I literally just got my feet wet.”
The last pay increase the City Council voted on was in 2019, when members approved a $200 monthly stipend. The most recent proposal considered raising it to $500 per month, but the council decided to revisit the idea later this year.
“We are also still in the middle of looking at our financial situation, so the sentiment was let’s come back to this in a couple of months,” Alaniz added. “We decided we are not ready to do this yet.”
Thanks Greta!
A council person only makes $200 a month? WTF?? How is this appropriate at all? Why isn’t this a paid position?
Don’t worry, Burton and friends always find ways to enrich themselves at the taxpayers expense. Perfect time to fill their own pockets as they drive this county 6 feet under and now get to enact even more austerity that got the county in this depraved condition.