Burbank will not adopt new method in selecting mayor, vice mayor
Some people perceive the way Burbank City Council selects the city’s mayor and vice mayor as a trust-building exercise between council members, but others see it as an unfair way to pick the city’s top representatives.
Council members unanimously decided during a meeting Tuesday not to move forward with adopting a new method of selecting which council members get the mayor and vice-mayor spots. In January, the council asked city staff to come up with a written rotation policy to better define how the two positions are filled.
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According to the draft policy, the vice mayor would automatically become mayor, and a council member who has never been mayor would become vice mayor, said City Atty. Amy Albano. Should one or more council members be eligible for the second top seat, the elected member who has been on the dais the longest would get the position.
If there are two or more members who have the same seniority, then the council member with the most votes from their election would be appointed vice mayor, the draft policy states.
City staff also gave council members two options to select a mayor should a vice mayor choose not to be mayor or cannot fulfill that position.
One option would be to appoint a member who has been mayor in the past, but who has not served as mayor for the longest period of time.
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Alternatively, council members could select the top seat the same way the vice mayor would be selected under the draft policy.
However, Albano cautioned that a member who has never been mayor or vice mayor could be appointed to the chief leadership role with the second option.
Mayor Bob Frutos said he was uncomfortable with having a rotating policy such as the one they discussed Tuesday night because he thinks council members have the “independent freedom to decide who they want” as mayor.
“We get elected by the people to represent them, and we make the decision of who becomes mayor and vice mayor,” Vice Mayor Jess Talamantes said. “We build relationships [by] working together and that’s what it’s all about.”
For years, the City Council has chosen its top representatives via an informal nomination process. A council member nominates who they would like to see be mayor or vice mayor, and council members casts their votes during a public meeting.
However, some residents, such as Irma Loose, said the method has been unfair to some council members, citing Councilman David Gordon as an example.
Passed over multiple times, Gordon was selected to serve as mayor in 2014 after being elected three times and serving eight years on City Council.
“I think it benefits the community to give newly elected council members an opportunity, perhaps not immediately their first year being elected, but certainly an opportunity to serve as vice mayor or mayor,” Gordon said about the proposed rotation method.
The councilman added that, though he liked the idea of having a more formal process, he was prepared to accept the status quo.
Loose said she was disappointed that council members chose not to adopt a different method of selecting the mayor and vice mayor, saying that residents have lost trust in the current City Council.
“We cannot trust you or believe in you, that you will do the right thing, to see to it that the fairness is in the council chamber,” she said.
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
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