Fountain Valley city officials review how mayors are picked

Fountain Valley City Council members Tuesday passed an ordinance to provide clarifying language pertaining to the selection of the panel’s mayor.

The legislation came to the governing body after Councilman Ted Bui raised an issue concerning tie-breaking procedures that could undo the existing rotation.

“As currently written, the ordinance states that the council member who has served the longest since being mayor, who had the longest service since the election — whichever is longer — should be the next mayor,” said Alan Burns, legal counsel for the city.

“The reference to the longest service since the election was probably for new council members who had never been mayor. The way it worked, in practice, is the council member with the longest service since last being mayor became the mayor, and then set up the rotation order.”

Bui said he brought forth the item in an effort to clarify the code. Burns conceded there was some ambiguity that could be cleared up with respect to when election results would come into play.

“Recently, it’s been suggested that the ordinance should actually be interpreted to mean that the tests are parallel tests,” Burns continued. “And if the person serving longest from the last election is a tie between two council members, and that’s a longer period than the time since both had been mayor, reference to the votes in the last council election must be made to see who had the highest vote count, and that person would be reset in the rotation order, and he or she might then leapfrog over the person who was in the previous rotation order.

“This was probably not the original intent, but it is unknown what the original intent was.”

Council members Glenn Grandis and Bui first joined the council in 2020, but only Grandis served as mayor during their initial terms after receiving the most votes in that election. Bui, however, received more votes than Grandis in the 2024 election, becoming mayor the following year.

“When Councilmember [Patrick] Harper and I were elected in 2018, Councilmember Harper had more votes than I did, and of course, he served as mayor before I did,” said Councilwoman Kim Constantine before making a motion to approve the language as revised. “We were both re-elected in 2022, and at that time, I did have more votes than Councilmember Harper. However, it would be Councilmember Harper who would be mayor before me, and I totally respect that.”

The council’s vote Tuesday sends the following language to a second reading to be included in the municipal code: The council member with the longest consecutive service since his or her last stint as mayor should be appointed mayor.

For newly elected council members who hadn’t served a term as mayor, priority would be established based on the greatest number of votes received in the last election. After each council member had served as mayor, a successive mayoral term would follow a rotation.

Fountain Valley’s municipal code regarding the selection of the mayor was written a few decades ago, according to Burns. While the city has largely followed the rotation in practice, it is merely a suggestion, not mandatory.

The City Council has discretion to choose the mayor and vice mayor, provided a nominee receives at least three votes with no less than four members present. Panelists may also remove a person from either office by vote, with at least four members present, at any time for any reason, the code states.