Thread by @shayshinecastle

OK, moving onto the mayor and mayor pro-team elections. Public hearing is opening now, though Wallach prematurely nominated Sam Weaver.

Mark Gelband is back as the only participant in this public hearing (so far).

He's arguing that Weaver "feels entitled" to be mayor, but we should look at election results when we select our mayor. Having a homeowner as mayor "excludes a significant portion of the community."

Joseph is the only renter on the council, btw.

Highly doubtful she'll be mayor, though, as a new person.

"Consider the rest of the community," he says after praising Swetlik, Friend, Joseph, Young.

I think the council members who wanted to be mayor were supposed to send in emails to that affect. I didn't see one from anyone but Weaver, but I could have missed it.

Couple more last-minute sign-ups for the public hearing.

Someone who didn't give her name is asking that Young be mayor. "She reaches out to ppl in the community who are not as fortunate as the rest of us."

Elizabeth

That is all she gave.

Andy Sayler: "I would strongly encourage you not to encourage two white men" as mayor and pro tem. "It will set an example to the kind of voices the council values going forward."

Katie Farnan echoes that. "As we're trying to represent more of Boulder, the leadership should represent more of Boulder."

Forgot to say the standing nominations were Weaver for mayor and Yates for pro tem.

Per emails.

Public hearing is closed. City attorney Tom Carr is going to explain the rules.

Originally, council just showed up and voted on mayor and pro tem. 2-3 years ago, rules changed that a statement had to be emailed before 2nd Tuesday in November expressing interest.

You can't be nominated if you haven't stated your intent.

"Rules are council rules, so they can be suspended by a majority of council," Carr says.

So council could do what they want, basically.

Swetlik: When was that told to us?
Carr: I don't understand.
Swetlik: I'm not sure that was communicated to us. I personally didn't know, so maybe others didn't...? Maybe future councils should be after the election.

Young: I encourage you to bring that up at the retreat. We can always change our rules further.

Joseph: Could we suspend the rules? Would we still elect the mayor tonight? If we did that, would Young or Brockett be interested?

Carr: You can suspend your rules by majority vote (5 ppl). I don't think you *have* to elect a mayor tonight.

If 5 of you agree, we could allow additional nominations.

Nagle: I'm happy to move forward with the nominations. I think Sam is excellently suited. I know this might not be popular. We're sitting here talking about white males. I'm pretty sure you have pretty Dif backgrounds; you're from Dif states, you studied Dif things in college.

"You have pigmentation you can't help. You have genders you can't help. ... Every single race on this planet has had something horrible happen to them."

Talking about white males "is annoying," she says.

Wallach: I think there's a misunderstanding of the implications of what we do here tonight. ... Nobody's voice is going to be suppressed based on who is elected as mayor and mayor pro tem."

Yates and Weaver are qualified. "I just don't think it's going to be a problem for anybody on this council to make their voice heard based on who is serving in those offices."

Brockett: "I'm also find moving forward tonight. I think Yates and Weaver will do a good job. Good point, Wallach, that these roles aren't enormously consequential."

Mayor is "kind of a traffic cop role."

But I would like more representation of gender and ethnicity in our roles. But those ppl have to want those roles.

(Brockett again).

Also responding to Nagle. White men "do have a lot of privilege."

Friend speaks! "I have a q. I'm not sure of the etiquette. I'm not sure I'd be doing Boulder any favors" by trying for mayor when I don't understand the rules.

Her q: Would anyone be interested if we suspended rules?

Young: I went for mayor a few years ago, but "things have changed in my life, personally."

Doesn't want to run.

But she is going to ask at the agenda-setting retreat that maybe council do some power-sharing when it comes to leading study sessions (mayor or pro tem has to lead business meetings, per charter)

That's that. It's going to be Weaver and Yates, mayor and mayor pro tem. Nobody else is nominated.

Well, they're only doing mayor right now, but we all know what's happening.

Nagle nominates Yates. (Wallach nominated Weaver)

Carr: Can you just have a vote?

Unanimous vote for Weaver as mayor.

And for Yates as pro tem

Weaver giving a speech.

"The main reason I wanted to be mayor was to facilitate conversations within council and within community."

Our values conflict. Ex-Mayor Jones gave some good advice: Focus on the we. "We as council are representatives of the whole community."

It's OK not to agree, as long as we're not disagreeable, he says. Mayor has "no more or less standing" than other council members.

Commits to be fair, efficient and collaborative.

Brockett makes a joke: "You do get to do a lot more ribbon cuttings than the rest of us."

Young: "And groundbreakings."

So that's that. Very instructive as to how things might work on council moving forward.

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