ORANGE : Plan to End Mayor Vote Is Suggested

Voters may cast their final ballots for mayor this November.

City Council members have agreed to require the city attorney to draft a ballot proposal for the 1995 election that will ask voters if they want to cease direct elections for mayor.

Instead, an ordinance would set up a rotational system so council members would fill the job for a one-year term.

Councilwoman Joanne Coontz said she has heard from residents concerned that the change would revert the city to the “good ole boy” politics that prevailed before 1978. Before direct elections, the mayor was elected by the council.

Shirley L. Grindle, one of five members of a committee lobbying for the initiative, said the rotational system must be part of the ordinance. “If not, this committee will not support the measure,” she said.

Robert D. Mickelson, who presented the petition last week, said the two-year mayoral terms waste time and money. The measure can be seen as a streamlining measure, he said. “And this will strengthen the city manager form of government,” he added.

City Atty. Robert O. Franks will draft the ordinance and present it in September.

The council also agreed that the job of mayor pro tem, currently elected, would become a rotational job also.

“This would not have any politics then,” Councilman Mike Spurgeon said.

The cost of a ballot measure is generally $4,000 to $6,000, according to City Clerk Marilyn J. Jensen.

Council members will decide later whether the city should pay for ballot arguments against the measure as well as for those in favor.