Should Debby Moorhead get elected mayor of Manteca on Tuesday it will mean the fourth time since 1998 that the council will have to decide whether to appoint a replacement for Moorhead or else call for a special election.
The issue won’t come up if Weatherford is re-elected or if Carlon Perry or Ben Cantu is elected mayor. That’s because win or lose Moorhead will be on the council when December rolls around. She’s got two years left on the four-year council term she was elected to in 2008.
Back in 1998, when Perry defeated Weatherford in their first show down for mayor Perry had two years left on his second council term. Weatherford advocated appointing the next highest vote getter in the council race which was Larry Lenschmidt. That didn’t get any traction and the result was the 1999 special election won by Dave Macedo.
When Weatherford defeated Perry in their first rematch back in 2002 the council appointed former council member Jack Snyder to the last two years of Weatherford’s council term.
Shortly afterwards, Macedo resigned prompting a special election in 2003 that saw Steve DeBrum get elected.
All of this begs serious consideration of whether the direct election of Manteca’s mayor is a bane or a blessing.
It’s been three decades since voters approved a measure put on the ballot by the council at the time and not by their direct petitioning of the people to establish a direct vote to select our city’s mayor every four years.
Prior to that, the council decided once a year among themselves who the mayor would be for the next 12 months. That system worked fine until bruised egos of the council members got in the way when the mayor’s job wasn’t rotated to individuals who expected to receive it but didn’t creating – surprise, surprise – acrimony.
The direct election of mayor has had mixed results over the years in avoiding tension among council members.
The best rationale for direct election of the mayor is that it gives Manteca voters a change to pick the person who will set the tone conducting council meetings. The mayor, however, has no real power beyond an average council member save for running the meetings and putting their John Hancock on official documents as well as performing ceremonial tasks.
Still, one may argue, it is the people’s right to decide who handles this task. But even supporters of direct election of mayor note that it is only marginally better than the old system.
There are other drawbacks. In Tuesday’s election, there is a good chance that the person finishing second for mayor could easily be the second choice overall of everyone among the candidates running for the council and mayor. Yet because of the direct election of mayor, that person may well end up not being on the council after the election unless they are an incumbent council member midway through a four-year term seeking the mayor’s seat. Instead two individuals who draw a smaller percentage of actual votes would instead be put in office.
Sure, they decided to run for mayor and not council but one can argue voters are at a distinct disadvantage especially if they prefer all three of the four mayor candidates as the best choices to lead Manteca and none of the four council candidates. Regardless of whether you are mayor or a council member, you’ve got only the power of one vote among five people.
Then there is the case of an incumbent councilman halfway through a four-year term opting to run for mayor and getting elected leaving a council chair.
Both the direct election of mayor and relying on the council to decide among themselves has drawbacks.
There is a third way that needs to be considered and that is to have whoever gets the most votes cast at a municipal election conducted every two years become the mayor and the second highest vote getter would be the vice mayor. They would serve two terms in those positions (until the next general municipal election) but four years on the council. Under such an approach, we would have elected three council members on Tuesday with the highest vote getter overall becoming mayor for the first two years of their four-year term and then in 2012 we would elect two council members with the highest vote getter taking the mayor’s seat or the first two years of their four-year term.
It’s time to give serious thought to how we select mayors in Manteca.
The issue won’t come up if Weatherford is re-elected or if Carlon Perry or Ben Cantu is elected mayor. That’s because win or lose Moorhead will be on the council when December rolls around. She’s got two years left on the four-year council term she was elected to in 2008.
Back in 1998, when Perry defeated Weatherford in their first show down for mayor Perry had two years left on his second council term. Weatherford advocated appointing the next highest vote getter in the council race which was Larry Lenschmidt. That didn’t get any traction and the result was the 1999 special election won by Dave Macedo.
When Weatherford defeated Perry in their first rematch back in 2002 the council appointed former council member Jack Snyder to the last two years of Weatherford’s council term.
Shortly afterwards, Macedo resigned prompting a special election in 2003 that saw Steve DeBrum get elected.
All of this begs serious consideration of whether the direct election of Manteca’s mayor is a bane or a blessing.
It’s been three decades since voters approved a measure put on the ballot by the council at the time and not by their direct petitioning of the people to establish a direct vote to select our city’s mayor every four years.
Prior to that, the council decided once a year among themselves who the mayor would be for the next 12 months. That system worked fine until bruised egos of the council members got in the way when the mayor’s job wasn’t rotated to individuals who expected to receive it but didn’t creating – surprise, surprise – acrimony.
The direct election of mayor has had mixed results over the years in avoiding tension among council members.
The best rationale for direct election of the mayor is that it gives Manteca voters a change to pick the person who will set the tone conducting council meetings. The mayor, however, has no real power beyond an average council member save for running the meetings and putting their John Hancock on official documents as well as performing ceremonial tasks.
Still, one may argue, it is the people’s right to decide who handles this task. But even supporters of direct election of mayor note that it is only marginally better than the old system.
There are other drawbacks. In Tuesday’s election, there is a good chance that the person finishing second for mayor could easily be the second choice overall of everyone among the candidates running for the council and mayor. Yet because of the direct election of mayor, that person may well end up not being on the council after the election unless they are an incumbent council member midway through a four-year term seeking the mayor’s seat. Instead two individuals who draw a smaller percentage of actual votes would instead be put in office.
Sure, they decided to run for mayor and not council but one can argue voters are at a distinct disadvantage especially if they prefer all three of the four mayor candidates as the best choices to lead Manteca and none of the four council candidates. Regardless of whether you are mayor or a council member, you’ve got only the power of one vote among five people.
Then there is the case of an incumbent councilman halfway through a four-year term opting to run for mayor and getting elected leaving a council chair.
Both the direct election of mayor and relying on the council to decide among themselves has drawbacks.
There is a third way that needs to be considered and that is to have whoever gets the most votes cast at a municipal election conducted every two years become the mayor and the second highest vote getter would be the vice mayor. They would serve two terms in those positions (until the next general municipal election) but four years on the council. Under such an approach, we would have elected three council members on Tuesday with the highest vote getter overall becoming mayor for the first two years of their four-year term and then in 2012 we would elect two council members with the highest vote getter taking the mayor’s seat or the first two years of their four-year term.
It’s time to give serious thought to how we select mayors in Manteca.
