[img]1154|right|Meghan Sahli-Wells||no_popup[/img]To prove one more time that appearances may be deceiving, Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells fired back her answer faster than the question had been pitched:
Were you nervous Monday night leading your first City Council meeting since being elected Her Honor last month?
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
How did she combat nervousness?
She gave the best possible response.
“Preparation,” said the mayor.
“The reason I was nervous…I had the jitters because it was an exciting and different kind of experience.”
To the large crowd in Council Chambers, Ms. Sahli-Wells audience conducted herself with the confidence of someone accustomed to being in charge.
She was tested early.
Red-light camera activist Jim Lissner of Hermosa Beach was the second speaker at the podium. Courtly, calm, well-researched, impressively prepared, Mr. Lissner suddenly was interrupted by the three-minute buzzer. Explaining that he had a modest amount of critical material still to share. Ms. Sahli-Wells relented. But Mr. Lissner was not as abbreviated as he had indicated he would be. When Ms. Sahli-Wells firmly but politely stepped in a second time, Mr. Lissner asked for an additional moment. No, said Ms. Sahli-Wells, and when he continued to speak anyway, she had his microphone cut off.
A community activist for years before her election 25 months ago, Ms. Sahli-Wells said that “when you go into a meeting, members of the audience know how it should be run.”
With a laugh of relief, she said “it’s not that easy, though, when you are running it.
“What made it challenging was that it was the reorganization of the City Council. At the very end of the meeting, after midnight, we did all the Council committee appointments, and then community people were chosen for the commissions.
“Appointing Council committee members can be tricky,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said. “I was making sure to prepare from a procedural point of view to make sure every Council member had a chance to pick first, to make sure everyone was heard.
“I wanted it to go really smoothly, and I think overall it did.”
The meeting was one of the longest in recent memory, 5½ hours, concluding at 12:30.
