HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Changes Way Mayors Are Chosen

The City Council this week overhauled its method for choosing a mayor and mayor pro tem, a change that proponents argue will favor seniority rather than politics in choosing the city’s ceremonial chief.

Under the new mayoral selection process, Jim Silva, as the current mayor pro tem, will advance automatically to become mayor at the council’s annual reorganizational meeting in December.

Councilwoman Grace Winchell will become the new mayor pro tem--in line to become mayor in December, 1992--because she has served the longest consecutive tenure among council members who have not been mayor during the past four years. Winchell, who has been a councilwoman since 1986, has never been chosen mayor or mayor pro tem by her colleagues.

In the past, council members have chosen their mayor and mayor pro tem each year by a majority vote. Invariably, the selection process has been an exercise in political maneuvering. To become mayor, a council member has had to work behind the scenes to line up three colleagues.

Under the new method, council members enter a rotational system, based on seniority, to decide who will be mayor. Each year, the sitting mayor pro tem will take over as mayor and the council member who has served the most consecutive years on the council will become mayor pro tem. No council member, however, may serve as mayor twice within four years.

If two council members have the same number of years’ experience, the member who received the most votes during the most recent council election becomes mayor pro tem.

Winchell, in endorsing the change, argued that the traditional mayoral selection process has been divisive.

“I really believe it has been destructive to the council,” she said. “We have enough problems with a (council) election every two years. But to throw in a mayoral election right after takes us away from the business we should be concerning ourselves with.”

Mayor Peter M. Green had proposed the change last year, soon after he had been chosen mayor pro tem, but the council narrowly rejected it. Upon reviving the issue this week, it was approved by a 6-1 margin.