Mayors Find Office Often Transcends the Ceremonial and Offers Power, Prestige

They cut ribbons, attend official functions and often get an earful from angry constituents. But for many Orange County mayors, as for their counterparts elsewhere, the job of representing the community seems to transcend the ceremonial nature of the post.

To some, it’s a position of power--or the “illusion” of power. There’s a little ego, and there’s definitely prestige.

In some cases, the office of mayor has proved to be a stepping stone to higher office. Mayors represent their cities within and beyond its borders, and they are often the first ones city staff members and others turn to for feedback on new projects.

“When the mayor says squat, everybody squats,” said Llewellyn Overholt Jr., who served on the Anaheim City Council for eight years. “The staff in the city gives the mayor a lot of credibility, and the mayor can make or break a project before it ever goes to the council.”

A task force examining the role of mayor in the city manager-council form of government reported that a “new breed” of mayor appears to be emerging: a politician more interested in broader issues; one who more often uses the local post as stepping stone to higher office, and one who often has an increased interest in political parties.

An article last month in Golden State Report, a magazine of California politics and public policy, called these products of municipal city councils who delegate authority to professional managers, the “new breed of elected official.”

“If the current trend continues, the state’s political ladder will have a new rung structure--the mayor’s office,” read the article titled “March of the Mayors.”

Newly elected county Supervisor Don R. Roth, who recently completed a two-year stint as Anaheim’s mayor, said the local job isn’t necessarily a sure route to higher office. “But it certainly keeps you in the spotlight,” said Roth.

“Sometimes, the people on the council pooh-pooh the job of mayor,” Roth said. “It’s a natural reaction to say that the mayor is nothing more than a person on the council, but it becomes definitely more than that.”

But the powers of mayors vary, especially between small and large cities in Orange County.

As heads of their councils and cities, they often serve on county and district groups, they can appoint to committees, they sign city documents and contract agreements and checks. And in some cities, they review what issues will surface, and when.

Stanton Councilman Michael Pace, for example, said that while serving as mayor last year, he reviewed the council’s agenda before council meetings. When he felt a report did not contain enough information, he pulled it from the agenda.

“It happens a lot . . . an awful lot,” Pace said. “Sometimes, staff prepares report that is slanted toward their recommendation. That happens everywhere. It’s unfortunate, but that happens to be the way our thought process works, so one of the jobs of mayor is to say ‘Hey, guys, this is not complete. We need more.’ ”

Even in cities with a directly elected mayor, as in Anaheim, Roth said, “There are no powers per se. There’s no veto power. You can’t beat up on the city manager any more than anybody else. The mayor, just like it says, is the spokesman of the city. It provides that extra amount of prestige.”

While the powers of mayor may be limited, many are willing to spend big bucks to win the post.

Anaheim Councilman Irv Pickler spent over $100,000 in the last race to get the job of mayor. So did his opponent, Ben Bay, who won the gavel for the next two years.

“It’s the prestige,” Pickler said. “There’s a little ego with it. It’s the title with it--when something happens in the city, you’re it.”

The city manager’s division of the League of California Cities recently created a task force to examine the role of the mayor in the manager-council form of government. The organization was spurred by a perceived trend in some communities for people to become frustrated with a figurehead mayor, and their desire for a “more recognizeable political leader.”

Under the city manager-council form of government, the manager plays the role of chief executive officer but that person’s managerial and administrative leadership does not include political leadership, said Roger A. Storey, manager of the City of Davis who chaired the task force.

In the past five years, Davis said there has been a stronger emphasizes on a need for strong political leadership. Cities need to be represented by a single strong voice and the mayor is in the “best position to define and articulate the mission of the city and advocate a sense of direction,” he said.

A mayor also is typically the one who can “build coalitions between diverse interest groups” and “exercise leadership (on) . . . social and economic issues,” the League of Cities task force report said.

To strengthen the mayor’s ability to exercise political leadership, the task force recommended many changes, including making the mayor’s job a directly elected, four-year term, much as it is in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where mayors function as executives overseeing the legislative body of city council. The recommendations were suggested for those cities seeking to strengthen the role of mayor.

In Orange County, voters in the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange and Westminster already have direct elections for mayor. Santa Ana will join their ranks next year. Fullerton City Councilman Chris Norby has suggested that his city follow suit.

In other cities, council members rotate the job or lobby their colleagues for the post. In Santa Ana, for example, former Councilman P. Lee Johnson, who lost his bid for reelection on Nov. 4, said he already had begun lobbying for the job of mayor during the election campaign.

“What you try to do is look down the road. For instance, in my case, I’m talking to active Republicans, (and saying) when this election is over and I’m elected, you have to bring whatever influence you have to bear on my fellow councilmen to have me elected mayor,” he said.

Johnson called it “just old-fashioned horse-trading politics.”