Boyer Expected to Be Named New Mayor of Santa Clarita

Carl Boyer, a Santa Clarita city councilman and teacher at San Fernando High School, is expected to be named mayor of the city during a brief ceremony today.

Boyer, who has served as mayor before, replaces Mayor Jo Anne Darcy in a routine rotation of the largely figurehead mayor’s job among members of the council.

The rotation system, based on seniority, has been the subject of a continuing dispute. Under the present rules, the job goes to Boyer, who has been on the council since the city’s inception in 1987, although other members of the council, elected later, have yet to serve.

“It’s not a matter of the person,” Councilman George Pederson said. “It is totally a matter of principle. If you are going to rotate, you should rotate fairly.”

But Boyer, for his part, said the dispute ignores a larger problem. The mayoral post now demands a greater amount of time than in the past and should be a stronger, separately elected position, he said.

“[The mayor] should be able to represent the city in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.,” Boyer said. “Having a mayor that is in rotation--you don’t have the clout . . . that other cities do.”