Fail: 604 / 26.25% Yes votes ...... 1697 / 73.75% No votes

See Also: Index of all Measures

Impartial Analysis from the City Attorney

Ballot Measures A, B and C ask the voters whether they want to establish an elected Mayor of the City of Ojai rather than following current City Council policy of the City Council annually selecting one of its member to serve as Mayor for the next year.

Measures B and C
State law requires that the question of the elected Mayor's term be separately posed to the voters. Those questions are as follows:

Measure B -- "Shall the term of office of mayor be two years?"
Measure C -- "Shall the term of office of mayor be four years?"

Measure B would create a two year term for the elected Mayor beginning after the November 2016 general municipal election. Measure C would create a four year term. Whichever Measure gets more "yes" votes will prevail.

Effect of Creating the Elected Mayor on City Council Terms
If the voters approve Measure A for an elected Mayor, the City Council will be required to select which one of the two City Council seats that are up for election in 2016 as the Mayor's seat. Candidates will then have the choice of running for Mayor or the one other remaining City Council seat.

If the elected Mayor position is approved by the voters, the four remaining City Council terms will become unbalanced, with one seat up for election in 2016 and three seats up for election in 2018. This will be the pattern every four years after that.

State law gives the City Council the option of rebalancing the City Council terms, on a one-time basis in 2018, by designating one City Council term as a two-year term rather than a four-year term. As a result, two City Council seats would be on the ballot at each general municipal election beginning in 2020.

This measure was placed on the ballot by a vote of the City Council.

No arguments for or against this measure were submitted.