Council will try again to eliminate the elected position of Mayor

The San Bernardino City Council will once again consider eliminating the position of elected mayor at this week’s meeting. Two weeks ago the council voted 4-2 in favor of placing a measure on the June ballot that would eliminate the position of Mayor.  This move comes after the council has taken several other actions aimed at making the mayor position unattractive and impotent in previous meetings.

Councilmembers Shorett, Figueroa, Sanchez, and Calvin voted in favor to place the measure on the ballot to remove the position of mayor, members Alexander and Ibarra opposed and Reynoso abstained from voting.  Alexander and Ibarra both noted that the voters in San Bernardino had an opportunity before to rid the city of the elected mayor position on the previous charter reform process just a few years ago and decided not to do so.

In a memo last week Mayor Valdivia vetoed the decision of the council which he has the right to do under the city charter if a vote fails to reach five or more council members in favor.  The council now has until March 4^th to try to put the ballot measure, which is estimated to cost in excess of $50,000 to manage, back on, but if they cannot muster more votes, the outcome would likely be the same with Valdivia issuing another veto.

Mayor Valdivia had the following to say in an interview about the subject, “The council are mostly a bunch of do-nothing political hacks focused on playing political games rather than what is important to the residents of San Bernardino,” he said.  “This obsession with me will not fill a pothole, help us grow economically, provide more housing, make our city safer, cleaner or in any way better.”

Gabriel Jaramillo, one of a handful of announced candidates for Mayor in San Bernardino posted to Facebook the following in reaction, “This is what happens when councilmembers want full power and the plans of trying to take the votes for mayor from City residents. Thank you Mayor John Valdivia.”

If the elected position of mayor is discarded, there still will be a mayor, but it would be a position to be chosen by the council amongst themselves giving them the power to decide who is mayor, not the voters.