In his most recent newsletter, Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu lists, as one of his goals for 2007, to “conduct a study on having a full time Mayor.”
An interesting thought. While the largest populated Orange County cities of Anaheim and Santa Ana, with over 300,000 residents each, do not have full time mayors, the city of Inglewoood, with 121,000 residents in LA County, does.
What should the trigger point be for making this change? Population, revenue, geographic size, etc.
You get what you pay for. Although many of our cities have talented members serving on their city council, this is still a “part time” position. Part time? Larry, your joking.
What impact will this change have on the powers of current city managers?
Seriously folks, are we best served by full time or part time leaders of our city councils?
I agree with Councilman Sidhu. Let’s start in Mission Viejo and pay Gail Reavis $75,000 to be our full time Mayor. She is a tireless worker who deserves the bump up in pay!
Larry,
I think it would really have to depend on the voters, and the city itself.
All of what Curt does for the city, I’m surprised to know that he’s only part-time.
In a city like Santa Ana, if Miguel were a full-time mayor, he probably wouldn’t have time to invest/run/work other business he’s involved with and would have to strictly focus on the city itself.
But even if that job of his was full time, I doubt he’d probably want it.
Then, of course, there will be plenty of debate regarding a higher salary, benefits, larger office, larger staff, etc.
Although if the job of mayor was full-time, I’d suspect that the city wouldn’t have to pay so much money to ridiculous lobbying firms. That job could also be done by the mayor.
At least that’s my opinion for now.
Another criteria that I overlooked in my post might include the number of employees in the city considering a change.
i.e. I just contacted the City of Santa Barbara to confirm that they have a full time mayor. They have 1100 employees. That’s amazing for a city of only 91,000 residents. Their Operating Budget is around $100 million. I am not sure if that is a one or two year number.
I think if Villa Park had a full time Mayor then maybe he/she could stop the coyotes from eating our pet cats!
I think if Curt Pringle, Larry Agran, and Miguel Pulido were all full time Mayors then Centerline would have gone forward.
Wouldn’t it be scary if Costa Mesa had a full time Mayor?
How about this one… In the City of West Hollywood, each member of the City Council has his or her own full time staff member.
Interesting that incumbent there rarely lose.
Costa Mesa will never have a full time Mayor because that would require them to have a full time nanny to take care of the kids and they don’t allow the undocumented to step foot in Costa Mesa any more!
Let’s hope that one day, we all will be exactly like Costa Mesa.
Anon 9
What happened to parents taking care of their children? Oh, wait a minute, they are both working to pay the taxes that provide illegal immigrants the many benefits the state and federal governments say they deserve, simply because they are here in violation of federal law!!!!
Post#11. “They are both working to pay the taxes that provide illigal immigrants the many benefits the state and federal government say they deserve” These parents and many other individuals employ these immigrants to take care of their children and to do other work for low wages. I don’t think these employers are complaining.The ones that do are big time hypocrites. Why don’t you get angry at them?
If there is a better mayor than Gail Reavis I dont know of him or her.
Yea, right. Didn’t Reavis sue Mission Viejo for $10 million a few years ago? If she were full time, maybe she can sue for $100 million next time.
Do you really thing she is even in the same ballpark as Pringle? You must be kidding….
It’s amazing. Remember the game where you stand in a straight line and whisper in the ear of the next person and by the time the comment reaches the end of the line it has no resemblance to the original comment?
The anonymous posts about Mission Viejo Mayor Gail Reavis come to mind.
Obviously metropolitan cities such as Chicago, NYC, SF and LA are easy. They need a full time mayor.
My question was, and remains, what’s the trigger point? Should there be one?
To digress. We recently saw a comment from UCI Department of Political Science Professor Mark Petracca questioning the merits of having our Board of Supervisors in OC. While much of the unincorporated land in OC has recently become part of our 34 cities, I respectfully disagree with Mark in his assessment.