Vicki Veenker and Greer Stone will step into the roles of mayor and vice mayor respectively for the year 2026. Following dual city council votes on Monday, Veekner was selected unanimously, while Stone narrowly won the vice mayoral race, with four out of seven total votes, over fellow councilmember Keith Reckdahl M.D. ’89 Ph.D. ’96.
In her inaugural address given Mayor on Monday, Veenker outlined key goals for city policy in the upcoming year. In particular, she stressed the importance of climate action and improving access to housing. “I will undertake this office with as much effort, skill and integrity that I can summon,” she said.
Veenker founded the Palo Alto-based law practices Veenker Law Offices and Veenker Dispute Resolution in 2013. She has served as a member of the Palo Alto City Council in 2023, becoming vice mayor in 2025.
Stone previously worked as an attorney for Flicker, Kerin, Kruger & Bissada LLP, later pivoting to work as both a teacher and director at Palo Alto High School and Gunn High School. He has been on the City Council since 2021. This year is Stone’s second nonconsecutive term as vice mayor, having previously held the office in 2023 and worked as mayor in 2024.
In his nomination of Veenker during Monday’s vote, outgoing mayor Ed Lauing commended her “great people skills, critical skills, very good judgment… and off the charts Midwestern work ethic.” According to Lauing, the critical determinant of a mayor’s success is their leadership experience, something that he believes Veenker has consistently displayed.
Councilmember Julie Lythcott-Haims ’89 pointed to Veenker’s prior work in city council projects as evidence for Veenker’s suitability for the mayoral role. “I won’t forget that as the Cubberley real estate negotiations were struggling to reach the finish line, you [Veenker] were the one that ran the ball at the end,” Lythcott-Haims said, referring to an agreement the council made with the Palo Alto Unified School District last year to purchase land for the redesign of Cubberley Community Center.
In his nomination of Stone, city councilmember George Lu ’14 noted that the vice mayoral selection is significant because “our norm is that the vice mayor becomes mayor in the following year.” Lu highlighted Stone’s leadership in mental health, as well as his work on water and environmental issues. “[Stone has] demonstrated that he can find compromise under pressure,” Lu said.
The other nomination for vice mayor was Reckdahl, an engineer for Lockheed Martin Space Systems who has served on the city council since last year. According to Lythcott-Haims, his previous experience in other aspects of local politics, notably on the Planning & Transportation Commission as well as the Parks & Recreation Commission, make Reckdahl well equipped for vice mayorship. However, Reckdahl ultimately lost the race with three votes compared to Stone’s four.