I found Jonathan Kraut’s article in the opinion section on Tuesday, April 23, titled, “Santa Claritans should choose our own mayor,” interesting whereas he states in part, “A petition drive could place a ballot measure to change this. But it would be expensive and almost impossible to meet the requirements of a petition drive to enable a public vote authorizing mayor as a new elected position.”
On the other hand, it would take little effort for our current City Council to place a choice on the ballot that would allow voters to determine if electing a mayor versus continuing the practice of allowing the council to pick among its own is appropriate.
I call upon our City Council to do the right thing and place on the ballot a new mayoral position of two years per term. Let’s give voters the option of whether we should select our own spokesperson.
I would like the mayor to be our mayor, not the “council’s mayor.”
However, Mr. Kraut neglected two major issues that the city needs that should be first. In fairness to all citizens in Santa Clarita, we need district voting, and parallel to this we need term limits. But let’s face facts. There is no way that the City Council will now or at any time in the future put any of these on the agenda, if for nothing else but public discussion.
Ken Dean, Santa Clarita
