Eight years ago, Santa Clara approved a policy to prohibit anyone from serving more than two terms on the city council or as mayor. But the city’s top political leader — Mayor Lisa Gillmor — might have broken that rule.
New questions are swirling about whether Gillmor was eligible to run for reelection in 2022, citing lifetime term limits that were approved and added to the city charter in 2016. The new rules defined a full term as two years or more, without counting any time served before Dec. 1, 2016.
“No person elected as Mayor shall be eligible to serve, or serve, more than two (2) full terms; but such service prior to December 1, 2016, shall not disqualify any person from further service as Mayor,” the charter reads.
Gillmor was appointed mayor on Feb. 17, 2016 after then-Mayor Jamie Matthews resigned. According to city rules, anything over two years qualifies as a full term — so this appointment is considered one term. Then Gillmor ran for reelection in Nov. 2018 and won a second term as mayor. She served her second term until Dec. 2022.
Then Gillmor sought reelection in 2022, a contentious race against now ousted Councilmember Anthony Becker. She won by narrow margins. That would mean she is now serving a third term as mayor — which is a possible violation of city rules.
Gillmor did not respond to requests for comment.
Based on the city charter language, the time Gillmor served as the appointed mayor from Dec. 1, 2016 to Dec. 18, 2018 exceeds two years and counts as a full term.
That means Gillmor may have termed out in 2022 and should not have been allowed to run for reelection.
A City Hall source who asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation said Gillmor could have termed out in 2022.
Councilmember Raj Chahal said the argument has merit and that he’ll seek an opinion from the city attorney.
“If something’s not (legal) as per the charter, we need to fix that thing, and it should be actionable,” Chahal told San José Spotlight. “I’m not an attorney, so the council will need to talk to the City Attorney and find out what course of action can be done.”
Santa Clara spokesperson Janine De la Vega said city officials will need direction from the City Council to analyze this issue. She declined to comment further.
Councilmember Karen Hardy said the question is whether Gillmor’s time as an appointed mayor counted as a full term. She could not speak to the issue since she’s not a lawyer.
Rich Robinson, a lawyer and political consultant, said a judge will likely need to decide the issue. That could take years.
“Based on the plain language of the statute, there is a legal argument. The question is how will the courts view it,” Robinson told San José Spotlight.
If she was termed out in 2022 and not eligible to be mayor, Robinson said it calls into question any votes she took over the past two years. Robinson has been a longtime critic of the mayor and her policy agenda, including an ongoing feud with the 49ers.
“There’s all kinds of slippery slope questions that could be raised as a result,” he told San José Spotlight. “The fact that she’s been on the losing side probably makes that moot on the major questions, but at the end of the day, it would be interesting. It’s an interesting legal argument, but I think it’s more of an intellectual exercise than a pragmatic result.”
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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