Unlike most City Council Meetings, the chamber was packed Monday night as Councilman Stephen Sham assumed Alhambra’s rotating mayoral position, vowing to help lead the city with development on Main Street, create parking spaces downtown, and facilitate general economic prosperity.

After an early meeting at 5:30pm, where about a quarter of the seats were occupied mostly with city workers, the room began to fill with former mayors, a contingent of predominantly Asian local political and community leaders, Chinese-language media, and Temple City Boy Scouts. Among the past leaders was Boyd Condie, a mayor during the 1990s, who now resides in North Logan, Utah, population 7,800.