Mulchay named mayor as council reorganizes for new year




CHANGING OF THE GUARD—Camarillo Mayor Shawn Mulchay, left, presents outgoing Mayor Charlotte Craven with a plaque honoring her year of service as mayor during a reorganization meeting of the Camarillo City Council on Dec. 1 at City Hall. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

As a boy growing up in Camarillo, Shawn Mulchay never gave politics or the City Council much thought.

But that changed in 2002 when he was a sophomore at Adolfo Camarillo High School.

Mulchay was honored for volunteer work with the Key Club, affiliated with the Kiwanis Club, and Mayor Charlotte Craven gave him a certificate at the first City Council meeting he ever attended.

That’s when he realized the value of public service.

Mulchay was passed the torch of city leadership Dec. 1 when he was selected mayor with a unanimous vote as Craven finished her eighth term as mayor.

Following his appointment at a special meeting, Mulchay compared shaking Craven’s hand as a teenager to a seed being planted.

“I got to thinking. Who is this lady? Who are these people up here? What exactly do they do? And that encounter started a curiosity in me and in a roundabout way materialized into today,” the new mayor said.

Mulchay said he looks forward to meeting the city’s challenges as mayor, including recovering from the pandemic and issues involving the future of Camarillo Airport.

He thanked family members for their support, and his grandfather gave him a gavel made of walnut.

“Were very proud that he became mayor,” said John Mulchay, adding that he expects the gavel to become a family heirloom.

Mulchay, 36, and Susan Santangelo, 53, were elected in 2018 and are the youngest council members.

Santangelo nominated Mulchay, citing his devotion to city affairs while holding a full-time job operating his family’s custom cabinet business.

Santangelo said Mulchay’s youth and vitality are infectious.

“I think he’s really visionary and represents a different age of leadership in the town. I think he’ll be a role model for other young people to get involved in local politics,” Santangelo said.

After Mulchay was selected, he nominated Santangelo to be vice mayor. She also won on a unanimous vote.

It will be Santangelo’s second term as vice mayor, as she was also appointed to the position in 2019.

Council norms suggest the mayor position rotate between council members, but that didn’t happen in 2020 when the council chose Craven over Santangelo on a 3-2 vote.

Craven’s backers said her years of experience made her the right choice during the pandemic.

But Santangelo believes the apparent snub was over her controversial comments supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and an unsuccessful recall drive she and Mulchay faced at the time.

Santangelo is hopeful the rotation will get back on the normal track.

“The rotation is really important to build leadership,” she said. “Shawn will have the benefit of being a new mayor with this wealth of experience around him, and that’s important.

“That’s why we have that rotation, so we can all help each other and lean on each other and learn from each other.”