Irvine : Baker Named Mayor by Unanimous Council Vote

First-term City Councilman Dave Baker, who was named mayor pro tem just a month after being elected to the council last year, was named mayor in a unanimous council vote Tuesday.

Baker, who will serve a one-year term, replaces David Sills, who will be wrapping up his fourth term as mayor of Irvine.

Baker, a lawyer in Costa Mesa, won office in June, 1984, in his second try for a council seat. The former UC Irvine basketball player has been active as a fund raiser for the Irvine Boys and Girls Club and is a co-founder of People for an Irvine Community Hospital.

Baker said that during his term as mayor, the council will tackle some tough issues, including annexation of open space and the issue of traffic corridors, opposed by many Irvine residents.

Replacing Baker as mayor pro tem is Sally Anne Miller, also elected to the council last year.

Although Irvine mayors serve a primarily ceremonial function, Councilman and former Mayor Larry Agran would like to see the office become an elected one.

The idea has failed to get backing from other council members during the two times this year that Agran has proposed the change.