The Los Altos City Council started off the new year with a reshuffling during its first meeting of the year, welcoming a new, returning mayor and vice mayor.
The Jan. 13 gathering was also former Los Altos vice mayor Neysa Fligor’s final council meeting before her resignation went into effect at 7:30 p.m. that day. She left her seat less than a year before her term expired after she ran a successful bid for Santa Clara County Assessor, although the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters has yet to certify the win.
Sally Meadows, sworn in by Fligor, will serve as mayor in 2026. She previously served as mayor in 2023. Larry Lang, sworn in by City Clerk Melissa Thurman, serves as vice mayor.
Prior to Meadows taking oath as mayor, council members thanked Councilmember Pete Dailey for his mayorship and the way he led the council in 2025.
“Pete, I think you had an incredible year as mayor, and it’s already been said (that) you’ve led us efficiently,” said Councilmember Jonathan Weinberg to Dailey while he was still acting mayor. “While all of us on the council, your colleagues and staff and the community appreciate having short, quick meetings, that’s not the mark of a successful mayorship – the mark of a successful mayorship is having led the city through a successful year, when it comes to the budget … to our streets … to our relationships with the schools, and traffic and parking. There were some tough issues you had to deal with and you led us to deal with them in a fair and well-thought-out manner, and I truly appreciate that.”
Lang – who said he didn’t want to get ahead of himself since Dailey still had less than a year on council – noted that one of the things he was grateful for was Dailey’s service to the constitution and the state.
The meeting was an opportunity for council members to reflect on the year they had, while residents and local leaders were also able to comment and give their commendations to council.
Margaret Abe-Koga, Santa Clara County District 5 Supervisor, noted she was excited to work with Meadows and Lang in the upcoming year and thanked Dailey for his service to the local community as mayor.
“I very much appreciate … (Dailey’s) work, and all of you, quite frankly, in affordability and housing affordability,” she said during public comment. “Achieving the pro-housing designation is really quite an achievement – only 65 cities in the state have that.”
She was especially proud of the city for the groundbreaking of 330 Distel Circle, the city’s first 100% affordable housing development.
In addition to Abe-Koga, commenters included Los Altos Hills Mayor Rajiv Bhateja, Campbell Councilmember Sergio Lopez, Saratoga Vice Mayor Tina Walia and representatives from the offices of Rep. Sam Liccardo, Assemblymember Marc Berman and Sen. Josh Becker.
Many of the speakers, as did members of Los Altos City Council, also thanked Fligor for her years of service.
“I don’t think there’s any way to measure the impact you’ve had on people’s lives, Neysa,” Dailey said. “Not just your colleagues and staff and residents here in the city, but because you have touched people in these ways and because you have been such an incredible example of grace and dignity and professionalism and consideration for others, that example plays out in how Jonathan does his job, and how I do my job, and how all those who follow you do their jobs.”
While still acting mayor, Dailey also issued a proclamation thanking former Town Crier Editor-in-Chief Bruce Barton for his decades of service to the city of Los Altos. He also thanked Fligor for her years of service in Los Altos.
With Fligor’s resignation, the once five-member council is now a four-member council. The seat can be left vacant until November when the seat is up for grabs, or it can be filled by appointment or election. The fate of the seat must be decided by the City Council within 60 days of Fligor’s resignation, City Manager Gabe Engeland told the Town Crier previously. If the council decides to call a special election, possible election dates are in January or June.
The Los Altos City Council faces a busy year with a number of decisions and discussions ahead, many related to parks, fulfilling the city’s housing element and the future face of downtown. Mayor Meadows gave some guiding words for both residents and her council colleagues.
“We all love Los Altos the way it is, and some of us oppose change because we do love Los Altos the way it is,” Mayor Meadows said during the council meeting. “But the choice we actually face, and you’ll probably hear me say this throughout the year, is not change or no change – the choice we actually face is will we have change that we get to manage ourselves, or will we have change that is done to us?”
