IRVINE : Measure Would Halt Direct Mayoral Vote

After electing just two mayors since 1988, Irvine voters will be asked in November whether two is enough.

Measure E on Nov. 6 will ask voters whether to scrap a 1987 measure that created the two-year, directly elected mayoral post now filled by Sally Anne Sheridan. Previously, council members selected the mayor from among themselves for a one-year term.

Three City Council members, including Sheridan, hold that Irvine does not need a directly elected mayor and that the 2-year-old system has caused nothing but grief. Supporters of the system, however, say a mayor selected by voters allows residents to choose a leader who will take the initiative on important issues and stand up to powerful land developers.

In Irvine, as in other county cities, the mayor holds more prestige than council members, but only slightly more authority, by controlling the gavel and setting the tone at council meetings.

Sheridan, who opposed having a directly elected mayor in 1987, argues that an elected mayor also holds dangerous symbolic power. “A directly elected mayor leads to the perception that he or she is the city’s top executive, running the city and directing the staff,” she said. “This leads to misconceptions and confusion from the public and the staff.”

Another problem, she argued, is filling a council vacancy if a council member is elected mayor. The seats that she and former Mayor Larry Agran left on the council when they were elected mayors created confusion, lawsuits and political bickering that continues and remains unresolved; Sheridan’s former council seat remains vacant.

The 1987 ordinance creating directly elected mayors said an open seat would be filled by the council candidate who lost by the fewest votes. The next year, voters approved Measure D to allow residents to petition the city to have the open seat filled by special election.

Measure D--which lawyers, judges, City Council members and many others have criticized as poorly worded--is the real culprit, said Irvine resident Mark P. Petracca, a political science professor at UC Irvine and chief critic of Measure E on November’s ballot.

Instead of trying to get rid of the direct mayoral election, the City Council should have proposed amendments to Measure D, Petracca said. For example, he said, such amendments might require a council member to resign before running for mayor, so the open seat could be filled in the same election.

Besides Irvine, five cities--Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana and Westminster--have mayors elected by voters. In most of these cities, if a council member is elected mayor, the council has a choice of appointing a replacement or calling an election. Santa Ana fills the seat only by special election. In Anaheim, a candidate for mayor must also run for and win a seat on the council, thus leaving no council vacancy.

Popular election of mayors is important because voters choose the leader of the council, who will carry the majority’s vision of the city, Petracca said.

A less controversial measure will also appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. Measure F would move the city’s regular election date from June to November. Supporters argue that more people vote in November general elections, so the higher turnout would make Irvine’s government more representative.

But foes say local matters will be buried among the larger November ballot issues, such as selecting a president and governor, while the June election allows voters to concentrate on local issues.