City Council to Elect 2012 Hercules Mayor Tuesday Night

The Hercules City Council is set to adopt a new interim process to select a mayor and then take a vote to choose him or her at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Hercules mayors serve a one-year term on a rotating basis with other council members. For every election, council members with the highest and second highest number of votes serve as mayor and vice mayor in the third and fourth year of their four-year terms.

Due to the June , the council members who would have been considered for mayor and vice mayor are off the council, leaving members Myrna DeVera and John Delgado as the most veteran council members, with one year on the council each. Myrna is Hercules’ current mayor and Delgado is the vice mayor.

The three remaining council member, Gerard Boulanger, Dan Romero and Bill Wilkins have been on the council since June.

“Since the (city council’s) rules of procedure do not expressly provide for a process to select the mayor and vice mayor when the council members who received the highest and second highest number of votes are no longer serving on the council,” City Manager Steve Duran and City Attorney Patrick Tang recommend the council adopt an interim process to select its 2012 mayor, said a staff report.

That process would follow Robert’s Rules of Oder, which would go something this:

• Council members nominate other members or themselves as Hercules’ next mayor. Any member can nominate themselves.

• If there is only one nominee, there would not be a vote, and that nominee would become mayor. If there were more than two nominees, there would be a vote, with each council member announcing their choice for mayor. Nominees can vote for themselves.

• The nominee with majority support wins the mayorship. If no one nominee receives the majority of council members' votes in the first round, the members will vote until a majority vote is reached.

There are other methods the council can use to select a 2012 mayor if it chooses not to use Robert’s Rules of Order, the report said.

Tuesday's meeting takes place at Hercules City Hall at 7 p.m. A reception for the outgoing and newly-appointed mayors will take place directly after the meeting.