Mayors, Mayors, and More Mayors

The City of Redwood City, notwithstanding its grand name, used to be a small town. It’s population barely 25,544 in 1950. (https://population.us/ca/redwood-city/) Today however its population stands at approximately 86,380 (https://www.redwoodcity.org/about-the-city/demographics/population ) and continues to grow.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana is a candidate for President. His credentials among others include being a mayor of a town of about 102,000 residents. His compensation for that work $150K. The city of South Bend, Indiana has an annual budget of $380 million. (https://southbendin.gov/official/mayor-pete-buttigieg/)

Meanwhile the 2019-2020 recommended yearly budget of the City of Redwood City is $300 million ( https://www.redwoodcity.org/home/showdocument?id=18302 ). However, Redwood City is still thought to be run by a council of seven elected council members. The Council is now considering changing the process to elect the Mayor.

Historically the seven City Council members elect a representative Mayor from within their ranks; however now they are considering making it simply a rotation. The reality however is that they do little but chart direction and make some official decisions. Council members receive a stipend of $750 per month and the Mayor gets an additional $200 per month. The real power, as laid out by the Charter of the City, is with the City Manager, an unelected position. The City Manager’s compensation includes a base salary of $295,000 and costs the city of Redwood City over $375, 000 including benefits. (https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2017/redwood-city/melissa-stevenson-diaz/) And in fact, while until only recently the City Clerk reported directly to the City Council, the City Manager has further consolidated her control of the City by having recommended that the City Clerk report to her and having gotten it amended in the Charter.

As noted above tweaks are constantly being made to the City Charter, when what really needs to be done is a major new revision that understands the reality of the City as it is today not as it was seventy years ago. These revisions should include a restructuring of the local government including a process for the citizens to elect a mayor and for that mayor to actually run the city.

I do not believe that just because you are elected to City Council you have an inherent right to become mayor. Even in a mostly ceremonial position, rotating mayors risks disincentivizing the only thing that the council technically does correctly which is to work together. While I generally have disliked the votes of 7:0 this council is most comfortable with; one of the arguments in support of a council elected mayor is that it forces the members to work together. While council elected mayors can end up being popularity races, they still have the maybe unintended benefit of forcing members to work together.

Those interested in a bit of historical knowledge might like to know that the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution changed the process of electing senators. Prior to the 17th Amendment in 1913, although federal congressmen and women were elected by residents; senators were elected from within each state legislature. In a properly working situation, it was the leader who could bring together the group that would become senator. Now of course we don’t have that incentive to work together as senators are also popularly elected.

Through an external threat of litigation, the process of electing council members has just been radically altered by creating districts. Other than two current council members that are in the same district; council members no longer compete or will compete against each other. We don’t yet know what kind of impact that will have on the process. More importantly however this means that things are already in transition and so amending the charter to popularly elect the mayor and properly reflect the current size and stature of Redwood City couldn’t come at a better time.