Savita Vaidhyanathan will serve as mayor of Cupertino in 2017.

Vaidhyanathan is the city’s first Indian-American mayor and takes over for Barry Chang. Councilman Darcy Paul was selected as vice mayor during a Dec. 8 public hearing.

“This is definitely a very momentous moment in my life,” Vaidhyanathan told a packed house at community hall. “I have several people to thank for this, and many of them are in this room, and my father, who is not here but is watching from heaven above. He instilled in me the confidence that I could do anything I set my heart to as along as I put the hard work in.”

She also thanked her mother, who came to the ceremony from India, and her daughter, husband and other family members in attendance.

“I’ve had several congratulatory messages saying that I’m the first woman mayor of Indian origin,” she said. “Yes, I do take a lot of pride and prestige in that, but I do want to thank the residents of the city of Cupertino that voted me in not looking at ethnicity at all. Thank you for your trust in me, and maybe we did break that silicon ceiling and put a few more cracks in that glass ceiling.”

She said she is looking forward to continuing to work with residents in the community.

“We have some really interesting times ahead of us,” she said to the audience. “Yes, we will debate. Yes, we may argue, but we all bleed Cupertino. I look forward to your help and inspiration. I will continue to reach out to you for your input and suggestions, and we will definitely help make Cupertino shine because it is a crowning jewel in the Silicon Valley.”

Vaidhyanathan is also the first woman mayor of the city since Kris Wang served in 2010.

Newly re-elected councilman Rod Sinks took a moment at the meeting to congratulate the new mayor.

“I’m thrilled that you are mayor, and you’ve already demonstrated here, assuming the role of these meetings when Barry’s been gone and also at some of our ceremonial events, that you are eloquent, thoughtful, passionate, but you know how to run a calm meeting and make progress,” he said. “So from my heart to yours, we will enjoy having you chair this body. I think you bring some unique perspectives and characteristics and ways of doing things that the rest of us don’t.”

This was the final meeting for Gilbert Wong, who served nine years on city council and termed out.

“I feel pretty damn sure that’s she’s going to make a really great mayor,” he said. “I’m really proud to have our first South Asian mayor, our first woman Indian mayor, and that’s something we should celebrate.”

This was the first meeting for Steven Scharf, who was elected along with Sinks on Nov. 8. His swearing in was met with applause and cheers from many of his supporters who attended the meeting.

One of the many audience members whocongratulated the new council was Muni Madhdhipatla, who commended Scharf for his relentlessness.

“You ran on a shoestring budget of maybe around $5,000 when the average council member runs around a $25,000 kind of a budget,” Madhdhipatla said. “You mobilized grassroots level support for yourself, and you made it. You didn’t have any endorsements from country club boys … but you still made it. And you stood (at the podium) advocating for a lot of issues other citizens care about.

“Now that you’re on that side of the fence, I hope you have authority and the power to make those changes, and that all these issues you cared about while standing here you can work with your colleagues to make happen.”