Saturday, December 15, 2007
Mayors, mayors everywhere
One of the odd little byproducts of how the city of Lakewood developed is that every two years, people start to ask very earnestly, 'Who is going to be the mayor?' And they ask the question out of more than just idle curiosity. The seven council members choose a mayor and deputy mayor from among the ranks at the first meeting in January. The last two cycles, the council has had a couple of very bitter and divided votes on that question.
For those of you new to town, here's some background on why the question is exaggerated in Lakewood and comes up so often. First off, you have to consider the real role of mayor. The job actually differs from city to city even though the term 'mayor' stays the same. In some cities, mayors have real power. They hire and fire. In some cities, the mayor is elected directly as mayor by citizens. And the term mayor has a lot of mystique (think how often you have heard the phrase, "Mayor Guiliani...")
But Lakewood is typical of cities where a city manager actually runs the city. The elected council sets policy and supervises the city manager. The chief role of the mayor in such cities is to set the agendas for meetings and preside over the meetings.
Some cities rotate the role of mayor every year. In Lakewood, the city's founding fathers and founding mothers created a two-year term, elected by the council. For the first eight years, they kept electing Bill Harrison. Now, Bill is a great guy, and the city has a lot to be proud of for those eight years. But there were two unintended effects. The first unintended effect is that Lakewood did not get a lot of experience with having different candidates for mayor. And the second unintended effect was that by giving the same job to a charismatic guy for eight years, the council exaggerated the role of mayor.
Here's an example: Four years ago, when I ran for office, I asked a lot of people what they thought of the city. Maybe about a quarter or even a third of the time, people would respond by telling me what they thought of Bill Harrison.
People can do a lot with that gavel. The second mayor, Doug Richardson, was able to dramatically re-shape and improve how the council relates to the public and how city staff responds to the public. Our current mayor, Claudia Thomas, has used the power of the title, for example, to effectively create an arts commission and to get the entire city involved in the recent appearances by Bill Cosby. In both cases, Claudia and Doug used or use both the gavel and force of personality to wield real power.
But at the end of the day, the mayor has one vote out of seven on the council. Claudia got caught in this early on when she gaveled off a citizen who was speaking negatively about someone. I don't remember the exact vote, but a majority of the council overruled her because we let such people speak in Lakewood. It was a very healthy event because a mayor can't always be right; and by Claudia's gracious acceptance of the majority, we saw that a majority on the council can define a mayor's role to what is written on the page.
In summary, the role of mayor in Lakewood is exaggerated, and yet exaggeration makes the role more powerful than one would expect.
But that's enough on why everyone cares. Took awhile to set the stage, so let's keep moving. This month I've had a lot of people asking, for the reasons above and other reasons, 'Who will be mayor?' The last two sessions, there were pretty narrow and divided votes. It's wasn't fun to be in the middle of it. There were a lot of bruised feelings right when a new council was emerging from the gate and setting the tone for the next two years. And, of course, there's lots of interest because individual citizens have their favorites for the leadership positions.
I think people wonder if we'll have the same bitterness over the term that begins in January and ends in December 2009.
The answer is, at this point, I am pretty sure it will be bitter and divided.
Here's why:
The council members quarrel a lot. And we have a lot of strong wills in Lakewood. I could be incredibly wrong - and if I am, I bet someone will tell us - but I don't think any combination of mayor and deputy mayor has the four votes they need to win in any sort of automatic way. Take a look at the individuals.
If you look at what we have now on the council field of seven, you have two original council members who already have been mayor and know the potential of the role, Doug Richardson and Claudia Thomas.
And, you also have the Lakewood CARES bloc, Ron Cronk and Pad Finnigan. Now, given how CARES did in the last election and their track record on the council, you may think it is odd I am bringing them up. But as I list names, do a little math in your head. Two votes gives you 50 percent of the four votes you need to be mayor.
I should quickly add of course that you've got Doug's former deputy mayor, Helen McGovern, you have me, and then we have our new member, Don Anderson.
So that's a total of seven chess pieces on the field that, unlike actual chess pieces, can move diagonally, forward and backward.
One of the bargaining chips that people have is the question of who will be deputy mayor. That was the role Claudia held prominently for those first eight years when Harrison was mayor. So there remains much mystique about the role. And if you as potential mayor can find someone to be potential deputy mayor, well, there again, you have two votes or 50 percent of what you need to get elected. And maybe that deputy mayor can bring in another vote or two.
Don't even get me started on the question whether all this should be going on without public discussion about the candidates and their qualifications. The vote just happens in January as if it came from nowhere. If the question has occurred to you, congratulate yourself, because it is a darn good one. But the problems are self-evident, and this posting is long enough.
So as for January: I suppose someone might announce in advance who the mayor will be ... but then that would also let citizens know who the slate will be and who they might propose or oppose in advance of any vote.
So will a mayor logically emerge before we vote in the first meeting of January? Could happen. But unless it does, people who ask me, 'Who's going to be our next mayor?' are in for a pretty long answer.
Forward this post
For those of you new to town, here's some background on why the question is exaggerated in Lakewood and comes up so often. First off, you have to consider the real role of mayor. The job actually differs from city to city even though the term 'mayor' stays the same. In some cities, mayors have real power. They hire and fire. In some cities, the mayor is elected directly as mayor by citizens. And the term mayor has a lot of mystique (think how often you have heard the phrase, "Mayor Guiliani...")
But Lakewood is typical of cities where a city manager actually runs the city. The elected council sets policy and supervises the city manager. The chief role of the mayor in such cities is to set the agendas for meetings and preside over the meetings.
Some cities rotate the role of mayor every year. In Lakewood, the city's founding fathers and founding mothers created a two-year term, elected by the council. For the first eight years, they kept electing Bill Harrison. Now, Bill is a great guy, and the city has a lot to be proud of for those eight years. But there were two unintended effects. The first unintended effect is that Lakewood did not get a lot of experience with having different candidates for mayor. And the second unintended effect was that by giving the same job to a charismatic guy for eight years, the council exaggerated the role of mayor.
Here's an example: Four years ago, when I ran for office, I asked a lot of people what they thought of the city. Maybe about a quarter or even a third of the time, people would respond by telling me what they thought of Bill Harrison.
People can do a lot with that gavel. The second mayor, Doug Richardson, was able to dramatically re-shape and improve how the council relates to the public and how city staff responds to the public. Our current mayor, Claudia Thomas, has used the power of the title, for example, to effectively create an arts commission and to get the entire city involved in the recent appearances by Bill Cosby. In both cases, Claudia and Doug used or use both the gavel and force of personality to wield real power.
But at the end of the day, the mayor has one vote out of seven on the council. Claudia got caught in this early on when she gaveled off a citizen who was speaking negatively about someone. I don't remember the exact vote, but a majority of the council overruled her because we let such people speak in Lakewood. It was a very healthy event because a mayor can't always be right; and by Claudia's gracious acceptance of the majority, we saw that a majority on the council can define a mayor's role to what is written on the page.
In summary, the role of mayor in Lakewood is exaggerated, and yet exaggeration makes the role more powerful than one would expect.
But that's enough on why everyone cares. Took awhile to set the stage, so let's keep moving. This month I've had a lot of people asking, for the reasons above and other reasons, 'Who will be mayor?' The last two sessions, there were pretty narrow and divided votes. It's wasn't fun to be in the middle of it. There were a lot of bruised feelings right when a new council was emerging from the gate and setting the tone for the next two years. And, of course, there's lots of interest because individual citizens have their favorites for the leadership positions.
I think people wonder if we'll have the same bitterness over the term that begins in January and ends in December 2009.
The answer is, at this point, I am pretty sure it will be bitter and divided.
Here's why:
The council members quarrel a lot. And we have a lot of strong wills in Lakewood. I could be incredibly wrong - and if I am, I bet someone will tell us - but I don't think any combination of mayor and deputy mayor has the four votes they need to win in any sort of automatic way. Take a look at the individuals.
If you look at what we have now on the council field of seven, you have two original council members who already have been mayor and know the potential of the role, Doug Richardson and Claudia Thomas.
And, you also have the Lakewood CARES bloc, Ron Cronk and Pad Finnigan. Now, given how CARES did in the last election and their track record on the council, you may think it is odd I am bringing them up. But as I list names, do a little math in your head. Two votes gives you 50 percent of the four votes you need to be mayor.
I should quickly add of course that you've got Doug's former deputy mayor, Helen McGovern, you have me, and then we have our new member, Don Anderson.
So that's a total of seven chess pieces on the field that, unlike actual chess pieces, can move diagonally, forward and backward.
One of the bargaining chips that people have is the question of who will be deputy mayor. That was the role Claudia held prominently for those first eight years when Harrison was mayor. So there remains much mystique about the role. And if you as potential mayor can find someone to be potential deputy mayor, well, there again, you have two votes or 50 percent of what you need to get elected. And maybe that deputy mayor can bring in another vote or two.
Don't even get me started on the question whether all this should be going on without public discussion about the candidates and their qualifications. The vote just happens in January as if it came from nowhere. If the question has occurred to you, congratulate yourself, because it is a darn good one. But the problems are self-evident, and this posting is long enough.
So as for January: I suppose someone might announce in advance who the mayor will be ... but then that would also let citizens know who the slate will be and who they might propose or oppose in advance of any vote.
So will a mayor logically emerge before we vote in the first meeting of January? Could happen. But unless it does, people who ask me, 'Who's going to be our next mayor?' are in for a pretty long answer.
