12 Dec Pittsburg Council Appoints New Mayor, Vice Mayor

Jelani Killings was chosen Monday to take a turn as mayor of Pittsburg, a role he also held in 2020. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Some tell former and current Pittsburg leaders that their City Council meetings are boring in comparison with other Contra Costa County cities. It’s something the Pittsburg City Council embraces even when they do have to change things up. 

“People throughout Contra Costa look at us and they respect this council,” council member Shanelle Scales-Preston said at Monday’s meeting. “They respect that we know how to lead with excellence, and I know that this council will continue to do so.” 

Some of that change came Monday, when council members selected Jelani Killings as the city’s new mayor as part of the council’s annual reorganization, appointing a familiar face and one of its most senior members to the role. Killings, who was first elected in 2016 and won reelection in 2020 and 2024, previously served as mayor in 2020 during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Killings was vice mayor for the past year under Juan Banales. Killings and Banales, who also won reelection in November, were both sworn into another term at the meeting. 

As part of the reorganization, council members also appointed Dionne Adams as vice mayor. 

“One thing about Pittsburg is you can see we have a lot of pride in our community, and it runs deep,” Killings said. “We all work for the purpose of lifting up Pittsburg.” 

Killings, a native of Pittsburg, works as an analyst for the Oakland Public Ethics Commission. 

Council member Angelica Lopez, who read a prepared statement praising her colleagues and assigning each “a superpower,” said Killings personified identity through his faith. 

Scales-Preston echoed Lopez’s comments, sharing that Killings, who ran against her and then-Antioch City Council member Michael Barbanica for the county’s District 5 Supervisor seat in the March election, was “a man of faith” that “would send a text or a prayer” to her shortly before her mother died. 

“It was Pittsburg pride every time we would come in these chambers,” said Scales-Preston, who ultimately won the supervisor race and will take that office in January. 

Adams said she was excited for the council and to work with Killings in their roles. 

“I love all the knowledge that’s here,” Adams said. “We live here, we play here, our parents know each other, our aunts know each other. There’s just a level of respect when you’re connected as community.” 

Residents, said Lopez, are also part of that community. 

In Pittsburg, “no matter who you are, you are a part of us,” Lopez said. “I dream of a city that will be your anchor. In fact, I urge all of us to become anchors to our brothers and sisters, our neighbors because change starts from within.”

The next Pittsburg City Council meeting, where they’ll decide how to fill Scales-Pretson’s seat, is on Dec. 16.