One of the byproducts of the discussion last week that ended up with the selection of Joe Krovoza as Mayor and Rochelle Swanson as Mayor Pro Tem, was the assertions made by Former Mayor Jerry Adler about the way in which the current ordinance, which allows the first place finisher in a city council to become Mayor Pro Tem and the first place finisher from two years ago to become Mayor, came about.
Jerry Adler’s clear purpose in speaking was to allow for Stephen Souza’s rotating Mayor proposal to have merit and also allow for Stephen Souza to be appointed as the next Mayor Pro Tem.
However, it was not he who led that effort, but rather former Mayors Maynard Skinner and Lois Wolk who responded to a situation where the council majority had politically chosen to bypass the first place finisher and install another choice.
What this ordinance does do, and worked well last week, is create the expectation that the first place finisher in an election becomes Mayor Pro Tem and the Mayor Pro Tem becomes Mayor in the second half of the four-year term. That led to the expectation that with a Mayoral vacancy, such as we had, the Mayor Pro Tem becomes Mayor.
The safe and non-political choice was for Joe Krovoza who finished first in 2010’s Council Election, to be named Mayor following Don Saylor’s resignation to become County Supervisor.
Jerry Adler somehow had to argue against that view, and in so doing put himself as the authority on Mayoral succession.
The problem, as former Mayor Skinner points out, is that “Jerry Adler was not the author of the ordinance.”
The history goes back to the 1984 City Council election where Debbie Nichols Poulos was elected with the most votes and fully expected to Mayor in 1986. As Maynard Skinner describes, “At that time, and before, the Council had an informal agreement that the person receiving the most votes in an election would be Mayor two years hence.”
“However, the 1986 Council consisted of Jerry Adler, Ann Evans, Mike Corbett and Dave Rosenberg, as well as Poulos, and it had a different idea. Word was leaking out of City Hall that Rosenberg had the votes to become Mayor,” Mr. Skinner continues.
He wrote, “A groundswell of support arose for Debbie and she asked me (and others) to do what we could, which wasn’t much since apparently Dave had the votes. As we know, Rosenberg was elected Mayor with votes from Corbett, Evans, and Rosenberg. The way it was left with Debbie was that if I ever got back on the City Council, I would endeavor to formalize the process to make the candidate with the most votes the next Mayor Pro Tem for two years, followed by becoming Mayor for two years as was/is the case in some other general law cities.”
Maynard Skinner did return to the Council, and in October of 1990, on a 3-2 vote, formalized the process with Jerry Adler and Lois Wolk joining Mr. Skinner.
Writes Maynard Skinner, “Jerry Adler, as interim Mayor, signed the ordinance, an administrative function not related to actually being the author of the ordinance. Maybe this is where Jerry got confused with the signing of the ordinance as required by the Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem instead of being the actual author/s.”
Maynard Skinner then goes through the history, and part of the problem at that time, ironically, was Jerry Adler and the fact that he did not get along with his colleagues. He was apparently, himself, arrogant and abrasive.
It should be noted that the last council is not the first council that has had such problems in the ranks.
Maynard Skinner apparently took steps to improve the tenor among the councilmembers at that time. He was elected in 1988 after a 14-year hiatus from the council, he received the most votes and it was largely expected that he would become the next Mayor Pro Tem.
“However, in a spirit of improving communication and building cooperation between Jerry Adler and the other members of the Council which had been strained,” he writes, “I as the incoming Mayor Pro Tem declined to accept the position and instead advocated the position of Mayor Pro Tem go to Jerry Adler for the next two years from 1988-1990. My Council colleagues agreed, though unfortunately this gesture to Mr. Adler was not successful in improving relations between council members.”
In fact, if anything it made things worse because in 1990, Maynard Skinner “once again, in a spirit of collaboration and in hopes of improving cooperation amongst my colleagues, and with the concurrence of the City Council, I decided to yield the position of Mayor to Jerry Adler for a period of 6 months (I was winding down my career at the University and needed the extra time) with the understanding I would reassume the Mayorship in January 1991.”
What is perhaps ironic in this whole recounting of history is that Jerry Adler came forth last week to speak on behalf of Stephen Souza as a noted expert on the ordinance. Not only did he overplay his role in that ordinance, but he had also apparently been a source of tension and discord on the councils that he served on.
He now advocated for Stephen Souza, who remains a holdover point of tension and discord on this council, which is looking to move past the strife that Stephen Souza played a least a part in creating for the last six years.
I am not saying that Stephen Souza was the worst culprit on that council, but he was not generally a solution to the problem either, even though for the last four years he was essentially the swing vote and could have used that position to be peacemaker. However, as often as not, he at least aided and abetted in the problems.
Sue Greenwald rightly laid out those problems in her comments. While she has been criticized for bringing up these points, she is absolutely correct in her statements here.
Ironically, the council that Maynard Skinner and Lois Wolk served on attempted to deal with the problem that was Jerry Adler by allowing him to become Mayor, in hopes that it would reduce tensions. It did not. Jerry Adler was basically advocating the same things.
If Council wanted to strike out in a new direction, the best way to achieve that was to move forward with fresh leadership. As Rochelle Swanson noted when she eventually cast her vote for herself and against Stephen Souza, “I don’t know if it’s noticeable, but I think the tenor of the room significantly changed in the last 20 minutes.”
And it had. But the meeting on this Tuesday was run well, the council worked well together, and the tenor was generally good.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
dmg: “And it had. But the meeting on this Tuesday was run well, the council worked well together, and the tenor was generally good.”
I have only watched one City Council meeting w Joe Krovoza as Mayor, and he had an excellent style. He kept things civil, collegial, and on track, without being rigid. Every Council member was given the time they needed to express opinions/ask questions. The public was given ample opportunity to speak. Some in the public were given extra time bc they were speaking for others. Such flexibility, collegiality, and decorum by the Mayor is frankly a breath of fresh air. City staff seems well prepared and taking directions from a more focused and less agenda driven City Council. I am cautiously optimistic…
The work that was done in 1990 led by Maynard Skinner and Lois Wolk to establish an official Ordinance to determine future mayors and mayor pro tems has served the City well. This week’s City Council meeting was a confirmation of the correct decision made by the City Council the previous week to follow that path and appoint Joe Krovoza as Mayor and Rochelle Swanson as Mayor Pro Tem.