A push to elect the mayor A push to elect the mayor (April 08, 2005)

Council member says voters should decide top post

By Jon Wiener

When City council member Mike Kasperzak was taking his turn as mayor in 2003, he hosted monthly "Mochas with the Mayor" to get out and meet residents. It was a time for constituents to come to him with their concerns about life in the city.

Of course, not everyone was as up on city politics as he might have hoped. He recalled, "One of the questions I always got was, 'I don't remember electing you mayor.'"

That's because they didn't elect him mayor; the city council did. Each year, the seven-member board votes for a new mayor and vice mayor, generally rewarding the longest-serving council members who have not yet served in those positions.

Throughout the rest of the Bay Area, celebrity mayors pepper the landscape. San Francisco's can be found splashed across the pages of Vanity Fair. Oakland's carries a legendary nickname - Gov. Moonbeam. San Jose's flew to Spring Training to promote his city to prospective baseball teams.

But here in Mountain View, the mayor is so low-profile he does not even get a sash.

That could change if Kasperzak has his way. His proposal to hold a citywide vote for the chief elected official could transform the post from a largely ceremonial one to a position of authority.

Kasperzak said he thinks it time for people to vote for one main platform, rather than just electing a committee that in turn chooses the mayor. No council member has more of a claim than others to have a mandate from the voters.

In some cases, that means two people on opposite sides of the same issue -- say, affordable housing -- both win seats in the same election. But if citizens pick the mayor themselves, the idea goes, it would be clearer which issue they care most about.

"As cities grow and get bigger and take on bigger policy roles, I think people want to have greater say over the leadership," said Kasperzak.

Five Santa Clara County cities and a third of all cities in California have directly elected mayors -- the closest one being Santa Clara. In Morgan Hill, a referendum to adopt a direct mayor election passed with 75 percent support in 1996.

Current Mayor Matt Neely, the self-described "number one P.R. guy for the city," said he was reserving judgment until he saw the final proposal. But he added that he did not see any reason for changing the current form.

"I really like the style we have now," said Neely. "It says a lot about how we work as a team."

Kasperzak is proposing a referendum on the March 2006 ballot, a move that would cost the city $80,000 in election fees. The city council will take up other questions surrounding the proposal, including the length of the term and whether council members would have to sacrifice their seats in order to run. @email:E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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