It’s no secret the people of Hollister have decided to try
something new with the city council, but some are now talking about
experimenting with the position of mayor as well by making it a
directly-elected post.
Hollister – It’s no secret the people of Hollister have decided to try something new with the city council, but some are now talking about experimenting with the position of mayor as well by making it a directly-elected post.
Currently, the City Council members elect a new mayor and vice mayor from amongst themselves each year. This, according to councilman Robert Scattini is “protocol. It’s just the way it’s always been done.”
But lately some city officials, like newly elected councilman Brad Pike, say they have been hearing the same question quite a bit: Why don’t we just have one mayor?
Ignacio Velazquez, the owner of the Vault restaurant who is active in local politics, said he has been behind making the mayor an elected position – a “strong mayor” – for some time.
“Right now, there’s no one leader that people look to for decisions. Without a leader, nobody knows who to believe in or who to look to. There’s nobody to make sure they get the information and things get done,” Velazquez said. “Right now, it’s like ‘Well, this person told me this and that.’ It’s difficult for the city council to get the information – numbers, what’s really going on within the department, whether (the council) is meeting its goals. It’s difficult to get accurate information or to make things work.”
Velazquez believes by electing a full-time mayor who holds the position for an entire four-year term, Hollister’s government would have a sense of consistency and would run more smoothly.
“The city’s growing. It’s past the point of (mayors) taking turns. There’s no continuity,” Velazquez said.
But Pike said the people he met while going door-to-door campaigning in his district before the recent election didn’t necessarily support the idea of one constant mayor. They were more confused as to why the city’s government works the way it does, with one council member from each of five districts and a new mayor every year, he said.
“Somebody actually asked me yesterday, and I had to explain why we have five people representing the city. It’s so that we make sure every part of the city is represented,” said Pike.
While Pike said he was neither for nor against the idea of a strong mayor, he did say at some point having one mayor might make things easier, and that if Hollister did have a strong mayor position further down the road, when he had more experience, he might be interested in running.
“It might simplify who’s in charge, and make it so people have somebody to go up in front of with questions, not just a board,” Pike said of the strong mayor concept.
Scattini agreed, saying he thought Hollister was too small right now for an elected mayor, but might need one as it continues to grow.
But Velazquez still said he thought the city needs a strong mayor sooner rather than later.
“The city has an overhead of about $35 million, and I look at it like running a business,” he said. “So City Council members get paid three or four hundred dollars a month for a part time position to basically run a $35 million business. Who’s going to do that for that kind of money?”
By having a full-time, elected mayor with a full-time salary, he said things would run much more smoothly.
The mayor now doesn’t have much more responsibility than every other council member, according to Scattini and current mayor Tony Bruscia. Scattini said the mayor’s main duty is being available to sign official documents, and Bruscia said the only difference between the mayor and a council member is that the mayor runs council meetings and is asked to attend events like ribbon-cuttings and grand-openings.
“You have no extra authority, no extra power,” Bruscia said.
If a strong mayor system is instituted, Bruscia said, the mayor would most likely just take over the duties of the city manager.
“Right now the council isn’t supposed to be dealing with everyday issues. We only handle the hiring and firing of the city attorney and the city manager,” Bruscia said, and all the other hiring and firing is done by the city manager.
“But one of the downsides to having a strong mayor is typically the kind of personality it takes to campaign and be the mayor of the city is not the same kind of personality it takes to run things administratively. The people I’ve talked to, no one would want to be the city manager if there were a strong mayor because they wouldn’t have any real authority,” Bruscia added.
Gilroy mayor Al Pinheiro, who is elected but not full-time, said strong mayors do in fact have authority while still allowing some for a city manager. The mayor and the city manager work together in such cases, according to Pinheiro, and he said this approach has been working well for him.
“Being at any job for one year, you can’t have as much of an impact on the city as you want to. It’s hard to get out your vision and everything you work for for your constituents for the future,” he said. “If you give somebody a job to do, they need more than a year to do it. Everything in government goes slow.”
