Tonight's Council Meeting To Extend Terms of Mayor and Council

The agenda for tonight's agenda  Oro Valley Town Council meeting includes two resolutions that are the direct result of state legislation. In this case, it is legislation that requires Oro Valley and all other towns that are not charter cities to hold its local elections at the same time as state and national elections.  This introduces partisan politics into Oro Valley Elections.

Another consequence is that the term of the Mayor and Council members must be extended in order to accommodate this change.  Consent agenda Resolution No. (R)13-56 does just that by extending the length of the Mayor and Council members terms to conform.  The terms of Mayor Hiremath and Council Member Hornat, Snider and Waters will extend through November, 2014.  The terms of Council Members Burns, Snider and Zinkin will extend through November, 2016.  Based on this resolution, the official start of newly elected members will occur in December. Our guess is that this would be the first meeting in December.

The second item is on the agenda that relates to the election date change is agenda regular item 3.  It is a public hearing on Ordinance number (O)13-20. This ordinance "... requires the removal of any language prohibiting a councilmember from serving as Vice Mayor during the same year that his or her council term ends, due to both terms potentially ending around the same time.   Current town he "...code currently states that any councilmember whose term is set to expire in June cannot be appointed Vice Mayor.

The ordinance changes the town code such that "At the first regular meeting in January December of each calendar year, the Town Council shall elect one of its members as Vice-Mayor by a majority vote."  For example, Council Member Waters is the current Vice-Mayor.  He and Council Member Snider and Hornat are now eligible to be elected Vice-Mayor.

This change virtually guarantees that council members Burns, Garner and Zinkin  will not be elected Vice Mayor this year.   This is because the majority for a Council always voted lockstep and never vote in agreement with Burns, Garner and Zinkin unless it is a vote to which they all agree.

The role of Vice Mayor is not terribly important. The Vice Mayor serves as mayor in the elected mayor's absence. Other than that Vice Mayor virtually has no authority.   So, one would say, the change really doesn't have much of an impact. Nonetheless, this is just another slight to the three newest members of Council, members were elected by a strong majority of the vote.

What do you think?
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