Bill Davis, Calimesa’s mayor gets fourth term

By KAREN DASILVA

Staff Reporter

For the fourth consecutive year, Bill Davis was elected Monday night to serve as Calimesa’s mayor in 2022 by his peers.

Councilwoman Wendy Hewitt nominated Davis at the annual reorganization meeting.

Ironically, the reorganization was delayed because a councilmember was absent at the first December meeting.

However, at the Dec. 20 meeting, two councilmembers were absent, both Jeff Cervantez and Linda Molina.

The reorganization agenda item was presented by Deputy City Manager/City Clerk Darlene Gerdes, who reminded councilmembers that they had the option to keep things as is or make changes.

“As you know we have no term,” she said. “If you want to do it the same you can. Otherwise, any changes you want to make you can make.”

The three councilmembers present chose to do both.

Hewitt immediately nominated Davis, who has served as mayor since 2019.

With his re-election to his fifth straight council term in 2020, Davis’ experience far exceeds his fellow councilmembers, who are all in their first term, with the

exception of Molina, who is in her second four-year term.

After Davis was again selected as mayor, without opposition, the nominations turned to mayor pro tem.

“I would like to nominate Jeff Cervantez,” Councilwoman Wynona Duvall said.

Cervantez, who has been on council since May 2019, was also unopposed and takes over for Molina, who had served as mayor pro tem since 2019.

Duvall wanted to share why she nominated Cervantez.

“A lot of us on this council are starting to age and we’ve got to start having these young adults step up,” she said about Cervantez, the only councilmember under 50 years.

“So that was my purpose of selecting Jeff. I think we can give him an opportunity to get mentored by our current mayor, so that he can start stepping up. That was my reasoning for that.”

Hewitt then expressed why she thought Davis should continue as mayor.

“The reason I nominated Bill Davis again is because he runs the meetings so smoothly,” she said. “He knows what he is doing. Most of us on here, actually three of us, are pretty new. I think we need someone who knows what they are doing and runs the meetings real well. I don’t think we have any complaints that way.”

Later, Davis thanked Hewitt and Duvall for their support.

“I heard comments on my abilities tonight and everything else. I got you all fooled,” he said to chuckles. “I really don’t know what I am doing and I question what I am doing all the time … You question yourself, am I making the right decision, am I doing the right thing. That’s always something, but you have to do what you believe in and think of the city.”

Davis went on to say he’s not perfect and makes mistakes, but he tries to learn from them. “I appreciate being the mayor again,” he said.

The Calimesa City Council meets on the first and third Mondays of the month at 6 p.m. at the Norton Younglove Senior Center, 908 Park Ave. in Calimesa.