District Three Councilwoman Lisa Landau was unanimously elected the 2025 Seal Beach mayor on Monday, Dec. 9. She was mayor pro tem in 2024.
District Five Councilman Nathan Steele nominated Landau for the office. No other council members were nominated for mayor.
Landau’s nomination was greeted by applause and cheers.
District One Council Member Joe Kalmick then nominated Steele for mayor pro tem. No one else was nominated for the office. Steele was unanimously elected mayor pro tem.
In Seal Beach, the voters choose the council members for four-year terms. The council members elect the mayor and mayor pro tem from within their ranks for one-year terms. The council is reorganized every December.
After the roll call vote, Landau presented a gavel mounted on a plaque to departing District Four Councilwoman/2024 Mayor Schelly Sustarsic and District Two Council Member Tom Moore.
“I would like to thank all of you for your confidence in my doing the job of mayor,” Landau said after City Clerk Gloria Harper turned the meeting over to Landau.
“I will work hard to achieve our goals as a team and to achieve our goals for this town,” Landau said.
“I’ll be short,” Steele said.
He said volunteers like Senecal, Wong, and Landau made Seal Beach such a great place to live. (Seal Beach council members are paid $7,200 a year, according to the California Controller’s Office compensation web page.) “So it’s an honor to have this seat as mayor pro tem and I promise I’ll do my best,” Steele said.
Background
Before the council voted, Sustarsic and Moore resigned their seats before the council voted for the new mayor. New District Two Councilman Ben Wong and District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal took their seats for the first time just before the new council elected the mayor.
“I do not take this duty for granted,” Wong said.
“I’ve been studying for a year; I’m ready to go,” Senecal said.
The council reorganization was the last item on the agenda for the meeting, which lasted almost two hours and 19 minutes, including a 20 minute recess to celebrate the departures of two outgoing council members.
