City of Hawthorne Mayor Term Length, Measure A (November 2013)
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A City of Hawthorne Mayor Term Length, Measure A ballot question was on the November 5, 2013, election ballot for voters in the city of Hawthorne in Los Angeles County, which is in California. It was approved with a margin of only 57 votes.
This measure was designed to go into effect during the 2015 election. Currently, there is a two year term for Mayor and two council members are elected every four years. With the approval of measure A, three members, which is a majority, are to be elected every four years. The mayor was also made a four year position by Measure A. The cost of the November 5 election without Measure A would have been about $130,000, while the cost of the election with Measure A on the ballot was $10,000 more at $140,000. The measure was approved for the ballot by the city council in a 3-1 vote. Mayor Danny Juarez abstained because he held the office in question and Councilman Alex Vargas was the sole dissenter. The mayor was the only elected position in the city that did not come with a four year term.[1][2][3]
Various term limit measure were proposed and discussed by the city council but no agreement was come to with regard to a measure to put before voters this year.[1]
Election results
| Measure A | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Yes | 2,088 | 50.69% | ||
| No | 2,031 | 49.31% | ||
- These final, certified results are from the Los Angeles County elections office.
Text of measure
The question on the ballot:
| Shall the directly elected mayor for the City of Hawthorne serve a four-year term of office rather than a two-year term of office, so that all members of the City Council of the City of Hawthorne serve four-year terms of office, effective for the 2015 election?[3][4] |
Support
Supporters
Below are the council members that voted to put Measure A on the ballot:[1]
- Councilmember and Mayor Pro-Tem Angie Reyes
- Council Member Nilo Michelin
- Council Member Olivia Valentine
Arguments in favor
Valentine said: "I think the two-year term gives the mayor too little time to govern and much too much time to have to campaign. A four-year term would be fine, and I would not be interested in limiting the number of terms."[1]
Opposition
Council Member Alex Vargas was the sole dissenting vote when the council was deciding whether or not to put Measure A before voters.[1]
ElectionForum.com opposed Measure A.[5]
Arguments against
Vargas said: "If you have a four-year term and you choose the wrong person, that person's going to be leading you for the next four years and there's nothing you can do about it. That's going to allow that person to solidly campaign for four years."[1]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Daily Breeze, "Hawthorne wants voters to decide mayor's term extension issue," June 26, 2013
- ↑ Hawthorne City Council Agenda Bill for June 27, 2013
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Smartvoter.org, California, Los Angeles County ballot measure information
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ ElectionForum.com November 5, 2013 election recommendations
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