FILLMORE : McMahan Selected Mayor for 2 Years

Fillmore’s new mayor, Mike McMahan, will be the first in 12 years to serve a two-year term of office.

Before selecting McMahan mayor, the City Council voted to extend the mayoral term to two years although McMahan completes his first term as councilman in November, 1992.

McMahan, 34, said he will run again next year. He has lived in Fillmore 15 years and owns an oil field service business.

McMahan praised outgoing mayor Scott Lee’s efforts at improving communication with residents and promoting community involvement.

“With all the outside pressure on the city of Fillmore, it’s going to be very important to continue to get the community involved to maintain our quality of life,” he said.

The extended term was suggested by Lee earlier this month. Lee told the council that the one-year terms of Fillmore mayors since 1979 did not give a new mayor much scope.

“It takes a long time for people to realize who’s mayor, and by that time your term is over,” Lee said.

Fillmore did not have any laws limiting the term of mayor to one year, City Clerk Noreen Withers said. It has become traditional, however, for the office to rotate among council members each November.

A gallery of mayoral portraits in the council chambers shows that two-year terms were not unusual in the past. The record for the longest time in office is 12 years, shared by James Strickland, who began his term in 1938, and R.E. Linvill, who was Fillmore’s mayor from 1954 to 1966.

Mayor pro tem will be Linda Brewster, a homemaker elected last year.