Two new council members breathe new life into the city’s governing body.

The new City Council had its first full meeting Tuesday evening and it was clear from the outset that residents were going to witness a city conducting its business in an entirely different way, and it could not come at a more opportune time.

The city faces significant hurdles, and trouble surely looms. Jobs may be cut, projects may be lost, and scars will be permanent. An energized council must take sweeping and effective action–which must be immediate to avoid serious harm. The deceits were deep, and the deficits are real.

Emerging from closed session on Tuesday, Mayor Ed Balico announced that the council had voted to confirm its controversial termination of interim City Manager Charles Long in a 3-2 vote, a first in recent memory. The vote established an old and new bloc on the council that echoed throughout the evening, and although it meant a segmented council, it welcomed a renewed sense of healthy democratic debate.

Council members Don Kuehne and Joanne Ward voted with Balico to form the majority which simply did not want to admit past mistakes, even though they did anyway by voting for a third consecutive closed-session council decision–all were unanimous, including Tuesday’s–that upended the city manager’s position.

On Dec. 7, the council fired Long and reinstated Nelson Oliva. On Dec. 14, the council announced Oliva’s return was temporary and that a new city manager would be sought immediately. And on Tuesday, the council announced that Oliva’s contract would be terminated immediately and that Police Chief Fred Deltorchio would assume the position of interim city manager, starting Jan. 9.

The council may have been on its best behavior because four members of the Contra Costa Grand Jury were in attendance–whom had published the scathing report in June harshly criticizing the city’s handling of affordable housing through NEO (Nelson Oliva’s former company)–but questions were asked, answers were provided, and an actual dialogue took place before the public. The vote was unanimous to terminate the contract with NEO immediately, but residents were finally able to understand the opinions of the council members, which is what they’ve exhaustively been seeking.

Most, if not all, of city business had been routinely conducted in daytime subcommittee meetings, for which minutes were not recorded, and only until recently were not noticed or agendized. The items were then passed through the council on the consent calendar without discussion. That was the business as usual in Hercules. It may now have come to an end.

At several points during the meeting, newcomers Myrna de Vera and John Delgado asserted themselves and the platforms they ran on in the November election, and Kuehne voiced his opinion as well on several issues. Although Ward was mostly silent and Balico was characteristically not, the meeting seemed to carry a different air.

Whether or not the two blocs manifest into a serious disadvantage for a community demanding substantive change remains to be determined. However, with a potentially serious recall attempt in the works, news organizations actively reporting the council’s decisions and their impacts, and an engaged community, it is difficult to see how this council could manage to not approve elements of change, if only incremental. The city’s financial condition requires it. The additions of de Vera and Delgado pretty much guarantee it.