Palo Alto councilman Yiaway Yeh was unanimously elected the city’s mayor for this year, making him Palo Alto’s first Chinese-American mayor and the city’s first mayor to have graduated from Gunn High School.

 

Yeh, 33, is the second-youngest councilman to hold the position and the youngest in 80 years. He joined the council in 2007.

 

“I will work hard to keep us focused, efficient and effective as best as possible so that we can best serve Palo Alto,” Yeh said in a statement.

 

Yeh works as an auditor for the City of Oakland and had previously served in a similar role in San Francisco. The Palo Alto Weekly cited Yeh’s “patient, deliberative style” as well as his “mastery of some of the city’s driest but most critical issues, namely finances and utilities” as reasons for his election.

 

“He frequently sees things that other members of the council, perhaps all of us, have not seen,” said councilman Larry Klein, who nominated Yeh, in an interview with the Palo Alto Weekly. “I think we’ve all seen that Yiaway is a careful, deliberate thinker.”

 

In speaking of his agenda for Palo Alto in 2012, Yeh said he “couldn’t feel luckier.” He will hold a series of “Mayor’s Challenges” athletic events to promote community building in the city. He said he plans to focus on improving the city’s aged infrastructure, the efficiency of its services and its youth services throughout his term.

 

Yeh served as vice mayor last term, contributing to the unanimity of his election. The race for vice mayor, in which the council chose Greg Scharff over Greg Schmid, was closer. After a majority of council members indicated they would support Scharff, the council fulfilled Schmid’s request to make the vote unanimous.

 

–Ellora Israni