Council has options to consider for selecting a new mayor

While family members and the entire City of Menifee mourns the loss of Mayor Neil Winter, the four remaining City Council members have the unfortunate task of deciding how to fill the vacant position.

With Mayor Pro Tem Lesa Sobek acting in the mayor's role, the City Council on Thursday met for the first time since Winter's death, for a previously scheduled budget workshop (right). While city finances was the sole topic of that meeting, it is clear that the mechanism of choosing a new mayor is beginning.

The City Council must follow strict guidelines set forth in the California Government Code in moving forward, but it does have options to consider. According to city manager Armando Villa, options for replacing Winter will be discussed at the next council meeting on June 6.

According to California Government Code 34902, the City Council may appoint a new mayor, but that must take place within 60 days of the vacancy. If that doesn't take place, a public election must be scheduled at the next established election date -- in this case, Nov. 6.

According to Government Code 34902, "a person appointed or elected to fill a vacancy shall hold office for the unexpired term of the former incumbent." Thus an appointed mayor could conceivably serve until November 2020, when Winter's term would've ended. On the other hand, according to Government Code 36512, the City Council could enact an ordinance to appoint a mayor for a six-month period, until a November election is held to choose a mayor for the next two years.

By law, any of the four current City Council members could be appointed mayor immediately to serve the remainder of Winter's term. That includes John Denver, whose term as the District 4 representative is up in November because of term limits.

As written in the City of Menifee Municipal Code, council member positions and the mayor's position are considered separately regarding term limits. Council members may not serve more than two consecutive terms or eight consecutive years in that capacity. Neither may a mayor serve more than two consecutive terms. This language allows for a "termed out" city council member to remain in the council in the at-large mayor's position.

If Denver is appointed mayor in the near future, District 4 would be without a representative only until November, when a new representative is elected. Gloria Sanchez and Daniel Moreno have already announced plans to run for that position. The same would be true if District 2 council member Matt Liesemeyer were appointed, because his term also is up in November.

The council terms for Sobek (District 3) and Greg August (District 1) run until 2020. If either of them were appointed mayor, the City Council would either have to appoint a new council member to fill their district council seat or call for a special election for that position.

The situation could be problematic if more than one of the current council members seeks the appointment of mayor, considering that there now is no fifth council member to break a 2-2 tie in the voting.

There is also a planned ballot measure asking voters if they want to continue to elect the mayor separately or create a fifth district and rotate the mayor's position each year. Even if the public vote is to rotate the mayor's position, that wouldn't take effect until 2020.

City attorney Jeffrey Melching has presented council members options to consider and discuss at the June 6 council meeting.