Mayor election proceedure discussed

Source: The Porterville Recorder, Calif.self storageOct. 11--Although the Charter Review Committee approved to make the mayor's position a two-year term that would require a majority vote -- four votes -- to rotate out of position before the term is met, the members have now decided to bring the matter back to discuss the possibility of an elected mayor for the city."I can tell you right now that the people I've talked to, that they feel they had no say in what happened. Let them [people] run for mayor," said vice chair Gary Giraudi.City attorney Julia Lew told the committee that they had only really discussed two of the three options; strong mayor and council manage. Council manage is the system Porterville has in place right now where the mayor is a "figure head" to represent the city and doesn't have a lot of mayoral duties. A strong mayor is more common in bigger cities, is elected and has a lot more duties and responsibilities, including some that belong to the city manager's position."There is another option which you are seeing more and more; that is a directly elected mayor, but still a weak mayor," said Lew.An elected mayor, as Lew explained, will have much the same duties as the city currently has -- thus a "weak" mayor. The big difference is that the mayor will be elected by the people and cannot be rotated out of the position. The mayor would have to be recalled by the voters, which would essentially eliminate the council "rotation" process."I agree [with Giraudi], but it seems like thosmini storage that expressed these items didn't realize we don't have a strong mayor," said member Matthew Green.Committee member Stephanie Cortez asked, "What do the people-citizens feel they will get by voting for the mayor since the duties of the mayor will stay the same?""A voice," replied several members of the committee at once.The committee members revisited this topic briefly as an item to add to the next meeting's agenda because they have been hearing a lot of responses from citizens. The theme seemed to be that the citizens of Porterville want the opportunity to vote for their own mayor instead of the council manage government currently in place; even if that means the mayor will not be getting any more "powers" than they currently have, except that they will be elected by the people and can only be removed by the people.This item is currently scheduled to be on the next meeting's agenda and the members encourage citizens to attend and offer their opinions and concerns on this matter, and any other agenda item.The next Charter Review Committee meeting will be held at 5:30 on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Library on the second floor.The public can send an email to crc@ci.porterville.ca.us to address issues to the committee.Contact Kelli Ballard at 784-5000, Ext. 1047, or kballard@portervillerecorder.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Porterville Recorder (Porterville, Calif.) Visit The Porterville Recorder (Porterville, Calif.) at .recorderonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉