San Gabriel Will Change Mayor Every 9 1/2 Months

City Council members on Tuesday voted to rotate the mayor’s job among themselves every 9 1/2 months.

By a 3-2 vote, the council abolished the current system, which provided for two-year terms for mayors elected by members of the council. Mayors were eligible to seek reelection.

Under the new system there will be no election for mayor. Instead, the council has adopted a rotation system in which each member will serve as mayor over a four-year period. The rotation system goes into effect after council elections in April.

Mayor Pro Tem James Castaneda opposed the rotating mayor system. “We’re making a change here without doing all the homework,” Castaneda told the council. He suggested that the system should be changed to allow the voters, instead of the council, to elect a mayor.

Mayor John Tapp, whose term expires in April, agreed. “I’d like to go to a system where the people do have a voice,” he said.

But Councilwoman Mary Cammarano said the new system, patterned after methods used by Alhambra and Monterey Park, is more fair than a two-year term for the mayor. “Everybody gets a chance to be mayor this way,” she said.

In the new rotation, Castaneda will become mayor on April 17.

At one point during the debate, Councilman Sabino Cici proposed that the change take place immediately, which would have allowed Castaneda a head start on his term. But Cici’s motion died because of lack of support.