Fountain Valley considers changing its mayor appointment process

After two years of drama surrounding its selection of the mayor and mayor pro tem, the Fountain Valley City Council might change its method.

The council Tuesday will consider four potential mayoral appointment ordinances. The options differ in the amount of discretion afforded the council in picking the mayor and the mayor pro tem, who is typically next in line for the top spot.

City staff did not endorse any one option in a report prepared for the meeting.

According to a Fountain Valley ordinance, council members choose the mayor and mayor pro tem from among themselves, based on seniority, for the one-year, largely ceremonial posts.

However, the council has ultimate discretion, and it invoked that discretion the past two years when it skipped then-Councilman Mark McCurdy when he came up in the rotation.

Instead, it appointed Michael Vo as mayor pro tem in December 2016 and elevated him to mayor — and Steve Nagel to mayor pro tem — this past December, despite objections from McCurdy and some residents.

McCurdy said he was being targeted for his opinions, but his colleagues denied that. Some had frowned on McCurdy’s absences from meetings about the city’s strategic plan and from other city events.

McCurdy resigned from the council in January, saying he needed to find work outside the area.

City manager raise

The council also will consider giving City Manager Rob Houston a nearly $20,000-a-year raise.

The proposed raise is intended for Houston, who was a deputy city manager in Newport Beach before joining Fountain Valley in July, to make a higher annual base salary than the police chief, whom he supervises.

Houston was hired at a salary of $210,000. The raise would bump him to $229,900, or 5% higher than Police Chief Kevin Childe’s base pay.

Firetruck green-light system

The council will hear a study session presentation on the potential benefits of installing an “emergency vehicle preemption” system on its firetrucks.

Emergency vehicle preemption is a GPS-based technology that gives vehicles green traffic lights on demand, potentially cutting response times. More than half of Orange County cities have the system for first responders, including all five cities that border Fountain Valley, but Fountain Valley does not.

Tuesday’s meeting starts at 5:15 p.m. with the study session, followed by the regular session at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 10200 Slater Ave.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD