The City of Santa Clarita can legally imbibe as of today, December 15, which marks its 21st birthday and official entry into adulthood.
I totally forgot to mention the occasion in today’s Daily Brief, but a Yet Another New Citizen’s Group has sprung up to wish a happy birthday to the City and ask for…
An elected Mayor! Surprise!
Here’s what the group of five women (so far) from the Citizens for an Elected Mayor -established just last week!- have to say on their fancy new website/blog:
During a recent holiday gathering several amazing women began chatting about the possibility of an elected mayor with so many vital issues being juggled at any given time. Our city has matured and outgrown the “honorary” revolving one year term of mayor. Our mayors don’t have the opportunity at long range vision, planning and implementation. Time constrains their direct involvement with our wonderful city staff who are burdened to put together compact recommendations and evaluations on every issue before the council. We concluded that being Mayor of Santa Clarita is a full time job. We decided to see how many like minded residents would join us.
They’re asking for petition signatures and hope to have the issue on the next city-wide ballot in April 2010.
So how would it work?
If you didn’t know by now, Santa Clarita operates as a “General Law” city, which according to the League of California Cities means Santa Clarita’s organization and functioning are governed by general state laws. This has the advantage of giving such cities a stable foundation on which to operate (such laws have been litigated in the past and are acceptable state-wide).
In our General Law city, the five members of the City Council are elected at large (they have no districts and are voted on by all in the City) and the City’s Chief Executive is City Manager Ken Pulskamp. The City Manager is hired by the City Council, works full time, and earns a salary.
The Mayor of our city, in contrast, is selected anew every year from the current City Council. This position is largely a ceremonial one. Frank Ferry is the current Mayor.
Some 58% of American cities operate similarly to the City of Santa Clarita with a City Manager and City Council, according to the National League of Cities.
So would a potential ballot measure mean changing Santa Clarita from a General Law City to a Charter City, the other type of city in California? I don’t know for sure, but the League of California Cities says sweeping governance changes do require a ballot vote.
Wha twould be the advantages for Santa Claritans if we were to have an elected Mayor? I can think of a few, off the top of my head:
- Directly accountable to all citizens, whereas the City Manager is accountable to elected representatives
- A Legitimate office with legitimate powers
- A full time mayor for a full time city job
- Longer terms (4 years?)
And some strong disadvantages:
- The politicization of the City’s Chief Executive. Say what you will about Ken Pulskamp, but he tends to steer clear of politics, especially during City Council meetings. A real Mayor, perhaps, would not
- Campaign Contributors: Obviously an elected Mayor would receive campaign contributions from a variety of donors whereas a City Manager does not. Whether this is a good or bad thing is a matter of opinion
- Longer terms than the current Mayoral position
Anyway, what Citizens for an Elected Mayor is proposing is an interesting idea. For some time, there have been those who wanted to see Santa Clarita change from an at-large City Council to a district City Council, where voters from Newhall would elect their own Councilmember. This is obviously quite different than that.
Overall, the group’s point is something to consider: with a population of 175,000 (and another 75,000 just over the freeways), big challenges ahead in infrastructure, healthcare, schools, roads, and safety, is it time for our sleepy burb to become a city with a real, full time Mayor?
I look forward to KHTS & The Signal fully developing this story in the weeks ahead and debating this idea in a public forum.