On Local Government By Bob Pinzler
Dissing an accidental mayor
Californians are presented with an array of types of mayors in our cities. In most big cities, they are elected separately from their City Councils and act administratively. They are the leaders of the executive. Usually, they have veto power.
In some cities, they are elected separately, but are part of the Council as well. In those cities, a City Manager usually acts as the head of the executive.
In other cities, the members of the Council select a Mayor to fill that role for as long as the Council agrees. Often, these Mayors are individuals who helped the other Council members win their positions.
Then there are the cities where the Council passes the Mayoralty from one member to another, usually on a nine-month basis to enable everyone in a four-year term to have a chance running the meetings and signing whatever documents need to be signed. Since the position of Mayor in those cities is primarily ceremonial, the process by which the title transfers is usually uncontested.
In Hermosa Beach last month, that process was broken. The person next in line to be the Mayor Pro Tem, the step prior to becoming Mayor, was passed over. Why? Because he annoys some people.
While this may be a good reason not to have dinner with someone or to not do business with them, this person was elected by the voters of the city to sit in one of the five seats that determine the policies and programs of Hermosa Beach. If he has done something so egregious that he needs to be passed over for this honorary job, then, perhaps, the voters, utilizing their legal means of recall, should remove him.
But, the pettiness of that particular move may make a much larger statement about the people who sit on the dais with him. That is their belief that this period of Accidental Mayordom is so important that their ego would be shattered if someone they didn’t like might occupy that chair for merely nine months.
The present occupiers of those chairs seem to forget how truly dysfunctional that city’s government could get. As soon as cable made it into the city council chambers in the 1980’s and ‘90’s, their meetings became “must see TV.”
Those people would consider these present-day lawmakers as “wusses” for complaining about something as boring as not liking each other. These people despised each other. Yet, the Accidental Mayor torch was handed off without much concern. Why? Because it really didn’t mean anything.
Get over it. There is nothing any of you can do as Mayor that you couldn’t do otherwise. And there is nothing the Mayor can do that you can’t undo.
Perhaps, Hermosans are just looking for something to fight over. Go ahead. It wouldn’t be the first time.