January 7, 2025
TO: City Council
REQUESTED BY: Craig Hayes,
APPROVED BY: Robert A. Johnson, City Manager
SUBJECT: Selection of Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council review the mayoral selection options in this staff report and either:
. Keep the current selection process for Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem adopted via Resolution No. 4042 on October 15, 2024, and take action to confirm Mayor Pro Tem Valerie Vandever as Mayor and Councilmember Alonzo Ledezma as Mayor Pro Tem;
2. Adopt Resolution No. 4055 and amend the current selection process for Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem by appointing a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem through nomination of any member of the City Council and three (3) affirmative votes and then take action to select a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem; or
3. Provide direction to staff and bring this item back at a later date for further discussion.
DISCUSSION:
At the October 15, 2024, City Council meeting, the City Council adopted a mayoral rotation policy via Resolution No. 4042. At the December 17, 2024, City Council meeting, the City Council did not take action on appointing a Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem and directed staff to bring back a resolution at the next City Council meeting that would amend the current selection process for Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and appoint a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem through nomination of any member of the City Council and three (3) affirmative votes.
1. State Law and Procedures for Selecting the Mayor
Government Code Section 36801 grants the City Council the authority to select the mayor:
“[t]he city council shall meet at the meeting at which the declaration of the election results for a general municipal election is made…and, following the declaration of the election results and the installation of elected officials, choose one of its number as mayor, and one of its number as mayor pro tempore.”
State law does not prescribe a particular method the City Council must use to select a mayor and mayor pro tempore. Rather, the City Council may select the mayor and mayor pro tempore in the manner it chooses.
2. Current Selection Process.
Section 3.1 of the City of San Jacinto Council Orientation and Procedure Handbook (the, “Handbook”) provides the procedures for selecting the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. The current selection process for Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem was adopted by the City Council via Resolution No. 4042 on October 15, 2024.
Resolution No. 4042 states that after the November 2024 General Election, the City Council would appoint the current Mayor Pro Tem as Mayor, and the most senior City Council member, who has never served as Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem, as Mayor Pro Tem. If there is no incumbent of the City Council who has never served as Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem, the most senior incumbent member of the City Council would become Mayor Pro Tem. Following these appointments, the selection process would then default to a rotational system where, after each election, the current Mayor Pro Tem would become the Mayor, and the Councilmember at the top of the rotation list would become Mayor Pro Tem.
3. Proposed Method for Selecting a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem The following is an option for the City Council to consider as it pertains to the selection process for the offices of the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. This option is how the City Council selected the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem prior to the adoption of Resolution No. 4042. The City Attorney’s office has prepared a resolution attached to this staff report if the City Council desires to adopt this option tonight.
With this option, the City Council appoints a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem through nomination by any member of the City Council. Following these nominations, each nomination must be confirmed by three (3) or more affirmative votes. In the event that no person receives three (3) or more votes for either one of the offices, the process must be repeated, with the two persons receiving the highest number of votes previously being the only nominees for that office seeking to be filled. If, after repeating the selection process, no person receives three (3) affirmative votes for the office, the City Council has the option to either repeat the selection process until the officer has been duly selected or continue the selection to the next regular meeting of the City Council.
FISCAL IMPACT:
No fiscal impact.
ATTACHMENTS
Resolution No. 4042
Resolution No. 4055
ATTACHMENTS:
Resolution No. 4042
San Jacinto - Resolution No. 4055 Mayor Rotation Policy