Council Votes to Change Mayor Selection Process, Extend Terms

In a 3-2 vote Wednesday night, Encinitas City Council passed an interim policy that will change how the city’s mayor is picked.

Currently, the city council votes every year to decide who should be mayor and deputy mayor. Under the new motion that was passed Wednesday night, the mayor seat will go to whoever gets the most votes during a city council election — and he or she will decide who is deputy mayor, too. 

The motion was made by Mayor Jerome Stocks and seconded by Deputy Mayor Kristin Gaspar. Councilman Mark Muir voted in favor of the motion. Councilman James Bond and Councilwoman Teresa Barth were both opposed. 

The Encinitas mayor and deputy mayor seats have traditionally been rotated so that each city council member gets a chance to serve, though there is no official policy requiring that to happen. In December, that process became a front-burner issue when Barth was not tagged for the mayor nor deputy mayor position for the third year in a row. That from her supporters who felt it was unfair and inappropriate for Council to not vote her in to one of those positions.

Wednesday night Barth addressed the issue, stating that she felt in theory the city council should be capable of selecting its own mayor, just so long as everyone showed “professional courtesy.”

“I personally think [the process] is not broken,” Barth said. “Obviously it’s perceived as broken because the process in the past three years has made not me look bad, but my colleagues look bad.”

 “It’s all about whether you want to be civil and whether you want to show some professional courtesy, not only to the people you serve with, but also to the people they represent and elected them,” Barth said.

Gaspar said she “respectfully disagreed” with Barth.

“I never came to office thinking that I would have that [mayor or deputy mayor] title behind my name,” Gaspar said. “The only title that I came to office with was councilmember and that’s the only title that the voters gave me. In my opinion, I came here to earn the confidence and respect of all of [Council] knowing I could do a good job and eventually earn a leadership role…but, I do believe we need to make sure our voters are included in the process.”

Bond called the process a “skunk dance” and Stocks said the process was “not elegant and not predictable” and lacked continuity.

“I don’t like the annual rotation, I really don’t,” Stocks said. “Frankly, it should be the voters that select us. And if the number one vote-getter in any one election is the mayor the final two years of their term, that’s continuity.”

Under the new process, Gaspar will be next in line for the mayor seat this December, as she earned the most votes in 2010. The mayor seat after that will go to whoever gets the most votes in the 2012 election, which will not include Barth because her term doesn’t end until 2014. If Barth decides to run for reelection that year and manages to get the most votes, the soonest she could serve as mayor would be 2016. By that point, Barth would have served on City Council for 10 years.

Of the 18 cities in San Diego County, Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar are the only places where voters do not elect their mayor. Bond tossed around the idea of putting out a ballot to see if Encinitas residents want to elect their own mayor — and if so, how long they think that term should last. Encinitas City Clerk Deborah Cervone said if that were put on the November ballot it would cost about $17, 000 to $23,000 per question, so In this case, about $40,000 total.