South San Francisco Mayor Mark Addiego told two council members it is “shameful” if they told District 3 candidate Sophia Cyris not to run.
During public comment at Wednesday’s council meeting, resident Sam Chetcuti said Councilmen Eddie Flores and James Coleman told Cyris not to run, something Cyris said at the Sept. 23 candidate forum.
“It reminds me of another one of your antics when you were first elected, and I’m glad it came to the light of day. That’s not the kind of politics that some of us are used to, but apparently it’s the new brand,” Addiego said to the councilmen after Chetcuti’s comment.
Council members usually don’t respond during the public comment portion of meetings. Flores and Coleman didn’t respond to the public comment.
Cyris is challenging incumbent Flor Nicolas and Woodside city planner Melanie Olson for a seat on council. At the Sept. 23 forum, candidates were asked whether anyone had asked them not to run.
Cyris said two council members told her to drop out of the race.
“One of them told me that I was not a true progressive if I were not to drop out of this race,” Cyris said. She did not mention which council members told her to drop out.
Olson and Nicolas said no one had asked them to withdraw from the race.
After hearing Cyris’s response, Chetcuti said he ruled out Vice Mayor Mark Nagales as one of the members who could’ve told her not to run because Nagales is running for the District 5 seat on the San Mateo Board of Supervisors against Daly City Councilwoman Juslyn Manalo. Chetcuti also ruled out Addiego, who is retiring and Nicolas, who is running for re-election.
Addiego said he was 100% certain Nicolas was not involved, arguing that an incumbent’s chances of losing depend on the number of challengers and how votes are distributed among the candidates.
“I’ve explained that to (Nicolas) more than once,” Addiego said.
There appears to be a typo in the third paragraph -- can you please clarify who is speaking in the first sentence of the following paragraph (“It reminds me of another one of your antics when you were first elected, and I’m glad it came to the light of day")? It's clear the second sentence is Addiego, but I'm not sure who was talking in the first sentence. There are three quotation marks in that paragraph when there should be four.
“It reminds me of another one of your antics when you were first elected, and I’m glad it came to the light of day. “That’s not the kind of politics that some of us are used to, but apparently it’s the new brand,” Addiego said in response to Chetcuti’s comment.