San Mateo council chaos as a harbinger

I've had a motivation challenge on making new posts since last week's very difficult post, so here are a couple of simple "just taking notice" posts to get back on track.  Our southern neighbor, San Mateo, is in city council turmoil as noted by the DJ in both the news pieces, a deluge of letters to the editor and Mark Simon's column.  With three new members and an open seat from Diane Papan winning an Assembly seat, the 2-2 tug-of-war over the mayorship is a sight to behold.  Simon notes

Most of the time, the title of mayor rotates between councilmembers and is largely ceremonial — the person presides at council meetings, cuts ribbons, gets to deliver a largely fungible “state of the city” address and is the center of attention for a year. Ah, not this time.

Having been married to a mayor, I can tell you there's a bit more to it than that.  Committee assignments, setting the bi-monthly agenda, certain management tasks and setting the direction of inter-city interactions are some examples.  But all of that aside for the moment, we should ask if the chaos in San Mateo is a harbinger of things to come in B'game?  Back to Simon

There were announcements of recall efforts targeting both Diaz Nash and Lee. Some flatly declared that blocking the election of a mayor violated the city charter, which it does not, and that it ran contrary to published guidelines on how the council is supposed to elect a mayor, which it does. But guidelines are, you know, only guidelines.  Monday night’s (city council meeting) hootenanny laid bare some significant incisions within the body politic.

Not the least of which is that district elections have wrought a profound change on local politics, including an unprecedented political immunity. Opponents can launch a recall effort to oust Diaz Nash, but it is likely she and her views are completely safe in her district.

Tiny little districts (ours average about 6,000 people each and voter turnout is usually around 15-18%) may make for safe seats or they may make recalls easier to qualify--or both.  The time, money and hassle of special elections and spot campaigning of it all is completely predictable.  And sad.

Comments

[Joe]

Compromise reached:

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/san-mateo-mayor-impasse-ends/article_c730fa66-7b6e-11ed-8a59-3b6e0cd0dc26.html?utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1671030005&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline

[Joe]

The mayoritis fever is catching!

In an unexpected break in its council rotation that had Gina Papan and Anders Fung next in line to be mayor and vice mayor, the Millbrae City Council instead voted 3-2 to name Ann Schneider mayor and Maurice Goodman vice mayor.

Both Papan and Fung pleaded with the rest of the council to reconsider the motion that went against the city’s rotation, claiming it would be disruptive to go against protocol.

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/millbrae-city-council-breaks-mayor-rotation/article_f3592594-7c38-11ed-9107-5fe5d98ab33c.html?utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1671116423&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline