The 2025 City Council
- Livable El Cerrito
- Jan 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 6
Carolyn Wysinger (left), this year's El Cerrito mayor, takes the ceremonial gavel from last year's mayor, Tessa Rudnick, at the last City Council meeting of 2024.Two new council members, William Ktsanes and Rebecca Saltzman, were sworn in. Lisa Motoyama was sworn in for her second term. Council member Gabe Quinto was elected mayor pro tem.
The addition of the two new council members sparked a smiling recognition that four of five members of the City Council are gay.
"I'm the token straight person," joked council member Motoyama.
The election of a gay supermajority was reportedly a first in the Bay Area. El Cerrito is also the first city in Northern California and the third in California to have a gay majority on the City Council, according to council member Ktsanes.
Mayor Wysinger, a former president of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, is El Cerrito's first black Lesbian mayor. After being elected, she gave an impassioned 15-minute speech.
“This is a day that the Lord has made,” she said. “I will rejoice and I will be glad in it…I’m excited to lead the first LGBTQ super majority here in the Bay Area.”
A graduate of El Cerrito High School, Wysinger acknowledged many mentors and supporters, including high school classmates who elected her as senior class president “some 24 years ago.”
She said she is “very proud that El Cerrito has been designated a pro-housing city” and “even more excited to be a regional leader in building affordable housing…As we are building housing, we are bringing in more and more working-class families of color into our city,” she said.
In her new role as mayor, she pledged to continue to be a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ community and black and brown youth, and to prioritize “working class families in the flats and along San Pablo Avenue.”
“Thank you, El Cerrito!” Wysinger said.
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