Traut is youngest Mayor Pro Tem in BP’s history; Council also honors Chief Sianez for 40 years of service
By Brooklynn Wong
In the Buena Park City Council’s last meeting of the year on December 10, the annual reorganization of the Council took place. Mayor Art Brown, who was serving as Buena Park Mayor for the seventh time, successfully completed his year of service. He will remain on the Council, but the title of Mayor now goes to Fred Smith, who had served as Mayor Pro Tem for 2019.
This will be Smith’s third time serving as the city’s Mayor.
As for the selection of the new Mayor Pro Tem, and person who will almost certainly go on to serve as Mayor in 2021, Councilman Connor Traut was nominated.
Traut is the youngest Council Member ever in Buena Park to hold the position of Mayor Pro Tem.
Multiple local politicians or representatives from their offices were on hand to congratulate outgoing Mayor Brown on another successful year of mayoral service.
Supervisor Doug Chaffee said, “Not every city has Santa Claus as the Mayor.”
Traut called Brown a “mentor to so many young people in Buena Park.”
A member of a local “Quilts of Valor” chapter presented Brown with a quilt the group had made for him, recognizing the large role that the military has played in his life. Brown served in three different branches of the military, from 1954-1989.
Brown himself reflected for a few moments, saying, “This has been a very challenging year to be the mayor,” citing things like construction in the city and the ongoing efforts by some residents to recall a fellow Council Member. But as for the positive, he said he is proud of things like the “good construction we have completed,” and “getting the streets back in order” thanks to “SB2 money,” a reference to the homeless “Navigation Center” currently being built in the city that will provide the necessary shelter beds to bring the city in compliance to allow the police to resume enforcing anti-camping ordinances. The shelter is being funded in large part by state funding.
The new Council will resume meeting in January.
In other news, the Council:
-Congratulated Chief Corey Sianez on 40 years of service to the Buena Park Police Department. Sianez said the position has “been nothing but fulfilling and rewarding to me.” The back of the Council Chambers was packed with over a dozen Buena Park PD personnel who turned out to show their support for Chief Sianez.
-Heard an update on homelessness in the city from CityNet. Among notable statistics was that ten people every month are exited from the streets.
-Heard residents Jennifer Harkey and a man named Del bring concerns to the Council’s attention. They are neighbors who reside near Azalea and Larkspur, in the area behind Medieval Times. They said there has in recent years been a notable spike in crime and traffic in their residential area. They reported evidence of prostitution, and regularly seeing alcohol bottles and drug paraphernalia left behind.
-Heard resident Marge Rollins speak on the Sunny Park recall efforts. She said in her 60 years of residence in Buena Park, she has “never seen anything like what’s happened politically recently.” She cited statistics recently released by the Registrar of Voters. Those attempting to recall Park allegedly gathered the necessary number of signatures on their petition, but when the petition was submitted and the Registrar of Voters attempted to verify the legitimacy of the signatures, a large percentage of them were found to be unverifiable. Rollins said she hopes the “city is able to bill” the recall proponents rather than have taxpayers pay the $3+ per signature fee that the city will owe. She said many residents are not involved in the recall efforts and do not want to fund it.
