Rico Medina defeats Pallas

Longtime San Bruno Councilman Chris Pallas lost his seat Tuesday when Parks and Recreation Commission Chair Rico Medina brought in the top vote count when the final votes were tallied.

Pallas was vying for his seventh term on the council but came in third just 81 votes behind fellow incumbent Ken Ibarra who will keep his council seat. Medina emerged as the night's big winner bringing in 25.63 percent of the vote, 3,632 votes.

"I'm certainly honored and I'm really humbled. ... This is the best thing the people could have given me tonight," Medina said.

Pallas, 81, accepted the will of the people but said he is happy to be able to look back on his years of service in the city and know he added something.

"It's like General [Douglas] MacArthur used to say, 'Old soldiers don't die, we fade away.' A lot of people felt I was too old," he said.

There were six candidates in all vying for the two open council positions including Scott Buschman, Brad Forcier, Ibarra, Medina, Pallas and Stephen Pieraldi. Buschman came in fourth with 1,629 votes, Pieraldi behind him with 1,316 votes and Forcier last with 685 votes.

San Bruno had various other positions open including mayor, city clerk and treasurer.

Mayor Larry Franzella, 50, will return for another two-year term bringing in 68.5 percent of the vote, 5,401 votes. He has served as mayor since 1999.

In his next term, Franzella would like to get some strategic long-term planning in place like a new library and the grade separation needed for the train.

Franzella had one challenger, Michael Salazar, a project manager. Salazar received 31.5 percent of the vote, 2,484 votes.

Both the treasurer and city clerk races had definite winners.

Linda Freitas beat Luis Adona for treasurer receiving 79.36 percent of the vote. Freitas, 46, has been the deputy treasurer of Burlingame for 14 years and was a member of the California Municipal Treasurers Association since 1991.

Carol Bonner won the city clerk race with 66.08 percent of the vote, 4,966 votes.

Bonner, 51, an assistant vice president and premier banker at Wells Fargo, has experience as a tax preparer, executive secretary, legal secretary and notary public.

Bonner's opponent, Joyce Ann Fritz, received 33.92 percent of the vote.