New Mayor/Council, Civics Refresher: Major Differences b/w Mayor/Council in LB vs. LA vs. Others
(July 15, 2014, 6:50 a.m.) -- They're newly sworn in (already done yesterday, today's later events are staged for public consumption) and their titles may sound the same as in other cities, but the legally specified powers and duties of Mayors and City Councilmembers in Long Beach, Los Angeles and most other CA cities (including Signal Hill, Lakewood) are different.
L.A.'s Mayor is the City's Chief Executive and has executive powers and managerial authority. LB's Mayor is not the City's Chief Executive and has no citywide managerial authority.
LB's Mayor presides at City Council meetings, represents the city at public events and can recommend, propose and suggest but the power actually to decide city policies, spending priorities (the budget), grant or deny development approvals impacting their districts and citywide and make, amend or repeal city laws rests with nine City Councilmembers. LB's Mayor can veto Council voted actions, but six Councilmembers can override the Mayor's veto.
Mayors in Signal Hill, Lakewood and most CA cities are the Councilmembers themselves; they simply rotate the title of Mayor. For many years, Long Beach had this system (which is less costly; LB's Mayor's office now consumes over a million dollars a year) but adopted a new City Charter in the 1980s in which Councilmembers are elected by geographic districts with a Mayor elected citywide. LB's Mayor can voice his/her views on citywide matters but has no vote; LB decisionmaking/enacting powers rest with a Council majority; managerial and Chief Administrative authority reside with a City Manager.
In conrtast, the Los Angeles City Charter provides that "management authority shall be vested in the Mayor who shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the City and shall devote his or her entire time to the duties of the office. The Mayor shall execute and uphold all laws and ordinances of the City."
The LB City Charter is very different:
...The Mayor shall be recognized as head of the City government for all ceremonial purposes and by the governor for purposes of military law, but shall have no administrative duties other than those provided for in Section 207 [deals with Legislative Dept, see below.] The Mayor shall represent the City at large and utilize the office of Mayor to provide community leadership and as a focal point for the articulation of city-wide perspectives on municipal issues.
Under LB's City Charter, a Legislative Department (comprised of the Mayor, Council, City Clerk and their respectives staff) is under the direction and control of the City Council and the Mayor acts as chief administrative officer for that department. However the Charter provides that the non-elected City Manager (hired by the City Council) is the City's chief administrative officer with the power to see to it that "all laws, ordinances, orders, resolutions, contracts and franchises are enforced and executed." (The City Manager handles all departments except the City Attorney, City Auditor, City Prosecutor, Civil Service Department, Legislative Department, Harbor Department and Water Department.)
LB's Mayor can appoint (actually nominate), and can recommend the removal of, members of City Commissions but their appointment/removal actually rests with a majority of the City Council. LB's Mayor can choose which LB Councilmembers serve on which Council Committees and some regional bodies...but LB Council Committees have no independent enacting, approval/blocking powers on their own; they meet and can recommend actions to the full Council.
LB's Mayor is required to present a message to the Council annually by January 15 on "the conditions and affairs" of the City and may make recommendations on what the Mayor wants done, but then it's up to the City Council.
LB's City Manager provides the Mayor with a proposed city budget, which the Mayor presents to the City Council with his recommendations, but the Council has the power to change, amend and ultimately enact spending priorities.
Exiting Mayor Bob Foster, who last year said the FY14 budget he recommended in August 2013 would be his last, recently used his final days in office to release and provide recommendations on a FY15 budget which will be decided in the coming weeks under Mayor Garcia by a new City Council majority.
So...how did now-exited Mayor Foster do much of what he did? A LB City Council majority let him. For several years, Foster had at least five or six fairly reliable Council allies who voted to do what he wanted to do. LB's Mayor can do what a LB City Council majority lets him do. How this system of checks and balances will be handled by a new Council majority under Mayor Garcia will become visible in the coming weeks.
And as noted previously, LB's new Mayor Robert Garcia and five new Councilmembers -- Lena Gonzalez, Suzie Price, Stacey Mungo, Roberto Uranga and Rex Richardson -- were already privately sworn into office; their terms began at midnight earlier today (July 15) and events scheduled later tonight are ceremonial only, basically for public consumption.
