Elect Our Mayor

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Elect Our Mayor, Political organisation, 220 Newport Center Drive , #11/385, Newport Beach, CA.

05/11/2022

"Fear and name-calling don’t move the needle for me, and I hope they don’t for you." Well said Ruth!

05/10/2022

"The Mayor should be accountable to us, the voters. We should be trusted to elect the Mayor.

So it’s simple. I’m voting Yes On B."

05/09/2022

When candidates for office ask for our votes, we expect them to remain directly accountable to us. When candidates for city council ask for our votes, they are promising to enact policies that make our lives better.

It turns out that the only way for city council members to enact that policy, though, is to make sure it’s on the agenda.

On the Newport-Mesa school board, the President of the board sets the agenda. In Newport Beach, though, the City Manager sets the agenda. And while the City Manager here is excellent, she is unelected and accountable only to the City Council.

There is one nuance there. City Council members can place items on the agenda if three of them want the item to appear.

Under the Elect Our Mayor initiative, the Mayor would set the agenda. And the Mayor would be directly accountable to you. The City Council Members could still place items on the agenda just like they can now.

The proposed system does not change a City Council Member’s power one bit. It does, though, move the policy setting from an unelected City Manager to the elected and directly accountable Mayor.

Opponents, though, have been lying to you. They have sent out mailers claiming that Measure B “gives total control of our city government to” the Mayor. No, no it does not.

You have Measure B on the ballot because a council member asked to have it placed on an agenda. And all seven council members agreed that it should be discussed. And it was eventually passed and now you, the voters, get to decide whether you want to elect your Mayor.

After everything that we have been through over the past few years, do you really want power farther away from you? Of course not.

Vote Yes on B.

05/07/2022

Our City is intensely complicated. We have a Harbor, a nearby international airport, millions of visitors, hundreds of miles of roads, 60+ parks, and full-time police and fire departments. We interact with dozens of federal, state, and county agencies, including the Orange County Sheriff’s Department on our Harbor.

Our city’s budget exceeds $230 million dollars. No business or organization of our size should be run with this passing-the-baton approach to leadership.

Right now, city council members pass the title of Mayor around every year. No matter what is happening at that moment or whether continuity would matter, the Mayor changes hands in a closed-off popularity contest.

We can do better. We can be more professional. And we can improve our relationships outside of the city by introducing a better sense of continuity.

We can do all of this by voting Yes on B.

05/05/2022

Newport Beach resident and respected attorney John O’Hara rebuts the naysayers and encourages voters to vote Yes On B.

05/04/2022

Who should choose your Mayor? That’s the fundamental question.

Should you choose who your Mayor is? If yes, then vote Yes on B.

In fact, that is the exact question on your ballot! The exact question is: “Shall Article IX, City Council, and Article X, Elections, of the Newport Beach City Charter be amended to provide for the direct election of the Mayor, who would be nominated by residents and registered voters of the City of Newport Beach and elected by the voters of the City at-large.”

That’s it. That’s the whole questions. Should we “provide for the direct election of the Mayor”?

Right now, council members from districts all around the city gather in a room once a year and pick from amongst themselves who will be Mayor. Even though Newport Beach has over 60,000 voters, the Mayor is selected by only seven people!

This Elect Our Mayor initiative places the power to vote in your hands, in the hands of the voters, not politicians.

So, should you elect your Mayor and ensure that the Mayor is accountable to you? Or should others choose for you?

It’s simple, we the voters should choose our Mayor. Vote Yes on B.

05/03/2022

The Elect Our Mayor initiative (Measure B) would transfer the power to elect the Mayor from the city council to you, the voters. How have people opposed to you getting the vote expressed their opposition? They want to “stop the power grab.”

Jeanine Bashore explains in this op ed just how absurd that opposition is when you think about it for even a second.

Vote yes on B,

05/02/2022

Can you be trusted to vote for your Mayor? We say yes. And we encourage you to vote Yes on B.

Opponents have created a political action committee called “No Elected Mayor.” They want you to believe that the proposal to directly elect the Mayor is “flawed,” but the very name of their political action committee is that they don’t want you to elect your Mayor under any situation.

Why? Because they don’t trust you to vote the way that they want you to.

But this measure isn’t about who you vote for, it’s simply about your having the chance to vote.

That chance comes if a majority of voters choose to vote Yes on B. Let’s make that happen.

04/29/2022

The Elect Our Mayor initiative will put the power in your hands. Instead of seven council members in a room choosing the Mayor, you would get the choice. You would get the vote.

If you want that choice, then vote Yes on B. It’s that simple.

Incredibly, opponents to that choice – the “No Elected Mayor” political action committee – call that voter choice “undemocratic.”

Simply stated, direct democracy is exactly that. Direct democracy is not, and never will be, “undemocratic.”

Don’t be fooled. You know that you’re capable of electing your Mayor. So let’s make sure we can do exactly that.

Vote Yes on B.

04/27/2022

Here in Newport Beach, all seven City Council Members are accountable to every voter in every part of the city. We have a system where candidates for City Council need to be from one of seven districts to run for that particular district. Those candidates then run city-wide.

Our system ensures that council members live in different areas of the city while also making sure that they are held accountable to every part of the city.

Contrast that to a “district-based” approach where the only votes that matter to a candidate are those from the district where they live.

Here in Newport Beach, then, every voter is represented by seven people instead of just one in the “district-based” system.

A directly-elected Mayor system would maintain the same representation of seven people for every voter.

Opponents – the “No Elected Mayor” political action committee – argue that moving from seven to six council districts would dilute districts, but that argument only works if they convince you that we are currently a “district-based” system. But you’re smarter than that and you know that we cannot “dilute” representation when every person represents the whole city.

Direct accountability is a good thing. Let’s keep that going. Let’s vote YES on B.

www.ElectOurMayor.com

04/26/2022

A letter to the editor from Ruth Kobayashi:

No Elected Mayor…Why does that sound like a campaign to limit my ability to decide who leads my City? Because it does.

Sadly, it’s the No On Measure B campaign’s intent. It should give everyone pause, to just think about those words.

The Elect Our Mayor (Yes On B) campaign has prompted many of us to consider how we think about the significance of the Mayor of Newport Beach. Regardless of who any future elected mayor might be, I’ve come to the following conclusions:

-The directly-elected mayoral model delivers far more visible leadership of the city, which can be important in dealing with other federal, state, or regional agencies, or other cities.

-A direct election gives substantial democratic legitimacy and makes a mayor directly accountable…answering to the voters has a direct correlation to looking out for the good of the entire city as a whole.

-A strong leader is more likely to be effective in developing a forward-looking vision for the city…how can a vision be cast and implemented in a one-year term? No effective organization is set up this way.

-Four-year terms provide stable leadership. There is value in continuity and stability in good times and in tough times.

-Elected officials who can be held to account are the ones who should set the city council agenda, not unelected city managers, no matter how good any city manager might be.

Change can be uncomfortable and not entirely devoid of risk; however, the benefits far outweigh the risks for the Elect Our Mayor Measure B.

I want to elect my mayor and will vote yes on B. I reject any movement that seeks to limit my ability to elect my civic leaders.

https://www.newportbeachindy.com/letter-to-the-editor-i-want-to-elect-my-mayor/

Address

220 Newport Center Drive , #11/385
Newport Beach, CA
92660

Website

http://www.electourmayor.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Elect Our Mayor posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your organization to be the top-listed Government Service in Newport Beach?