City Council Kills Ballot Measure to Give Mayor a Vote : Politics: Ernie Kell, angry at rejection of proposal, vows to launch grass-roots petition drive to gain voter approval.

The City Council has scuttled a proposed ballot measure that would have given the mayor a vote on council matters, but an angry Mayor Ernie Kell vowed to fire up a grass-roots petition drive to place the issue before voters.

Council members voted 7-1 against the measure Tuesday, saying its impact was not fully known and it should not be rushed onto the April or June ballots. In addition to giving a vote to the mayor, who now has only weak veto power, the measure would have reorganized the City Council into eight districts, instead of nine, to avoid tie votes.

But an irate Kell accused council members of killing the measure because they did not want to see their power diminished. Kell, a wealthy property owner, said he would organize and spend plenty of his own money on a petition drive to place a measure on the ballot.

“It’s ludicrous to have a position of mayor in Long Beach and not to have a vote,” said Kell, who is seeking reelection in the April 12 municipal election. “The mayor will have a vote. That you can count on for the fall.”

To qualify a measure for the ballot, supporters must gather 27,223 signatures, 15% of the city’s registered voters.

Long Beach residents voted in 1988 to create the position of a full-time mayor, who is elected at-large and earns $84,221 a year. Previously, the position rotated among the nine part-time council members, who are elected by district.

But the full-time mayor has little power. Kell chairs council meetings and voices his opinion, but he has no vote and only limited veto power. In most cases, a simple majority of the council can override a mayoral veto.

Kell and other community leaders have long called for the mayor to have either a vote or a strong veto--requiring a two-thirds council vote--to improve the mayor’s ability to lead.

A group of citizens, led by developer and harbor commissioner Alex Bellehumeur, proposed the ballot measure two months ago. Proponents had said they hoped the council would approve the measure for the April ballot, but the council balked.

Vice Mayor Jeffrey A. Kellogg and Councilman Ray Grabinski, who have entered the mayoral race against Kell, said there was not enough time to study the proposal. Tuesday is the deadline for council action to place a measure on the April ballot.

Grabinski, who is giving up his seat to run for mayor, railed against Kell’s allegation that council members were simply trying to protect their power.

“This is not an issue of power between the mayor and the City Council. . . . This is a matter of representation,” Grabinski said.

Councilman Alan S. Lowenthal said reducing the number of council seats would reduce the voice of neighborhoods in local government.

Councilwoman Doris Topsy-Elvord, an African American and the only ethnic minority on the council, expressed concern that redistricting would hurt the chances for more minorities to win election.

The lone vote for the measure came from Councilman Les Robbins, who proposed giving the mayor a vote and leaving intact the city’s nine council districts. Robbins said he was not overly concerned about tie votes.

“Give the mayor a vote,” he said. “In the event of a tie, (a proposal) loses.”

Councilman Tom Clark was absent.

Kell said he would work with community groups to draw up a new measure and launch a petition drive to qualify it for the ballot. The measure would give the mayor either a vote or a strong veto to “redistribute power” at City Hall, Kell said.

“We’ll work out the language and we will not be asking the council for their approval,” said Kell, who vowed to press forward whether or not he wins reelection.

But history indicates Kell faces an uphill battle. Long Beach voters turned down ballot measures in 1990 and 1992 that would have given the mayor a stronger veto. The council had placed both measures on the ballot.

In a related action Tuesday, the council also killed a proposal to ask voters to double council members’ salaries of $21,055 a year if the number of districts was reduced to eight.