This morning The Signal published a story on our growing group. City Attorney Carl Newton stated that the city did not need to be a charter city to have an elected mayor. In addition the powers vested to an elected mayor would be determined by the charter adopted by voters. A charter can be customized to suit the specific needs of a city. As mentioned, in a charter city like Los Angeles, the mayor has veto power over the council. Mayor Frank Ferry introduced an elected mayor system before the council on two prior occasions and was voted down.

To be clear, cfemscv.org envisions a charter that would require anyone seeking the office of mayor to be or have been, a councilmember. The mayor would only have one vote equal to that of the four councilmembers. The reason for these two stipulations goes without saying.

At this time, issues that come before the council have a staff recommendation presented to them. When the hospital made its original request for expansion nearly five years ago, there were many errors and omissions that planners did not uncover. It took a citizen to bring these problems to light which resulted a far better project than that which was originally proposed and recommended by staff for council approval. Our council should be fully and accurately informed on both sides of every issue. A full time mayor would be a tremendous help to the city manager and staff in that regard.

READ THE STORY: http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/7208/