Gainesville council set to OK qualifying fee for elected mayor

Gainesville City Council is set to approve qualifying fees for the newly established elected mayor?s post as well as for Ward 1 and 4 seats.

Council members talked about the fees, which also affect Gainesville City Board of Education Ward 1 and 4 seats, at its work session this morning.

Residents would have to pay a $621 qualifying fee for one of the council seats, $35 for mayor and $165.87 for one of the school board seats.

"The state election code pretty much dictates how we calculate the fee, which is 3 percent of the salary paid in the previous year," City Clerk Denise Neal told the council.

Since the city hasn?t had an elected mayor, "we had to fall back on state law, which says that fee can?t be any higher than $35," she said.

City Manager Kip Padgett told council members they "would need, before next January, to set the salary for the mayor.

"If we can get some ideas about what you all are looking at, sooner rather than later, because we need to plug that into the budgeting process," he said.

The proposed fees go before City Council as a resolution at its next meeting, set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Public Safety Complex, 701 Queen City Parkway.

The new mayor plan keeps the council?s current election structure intact, calling for the citywide election of five council members from each of the city?s wards, and a continued two-year rotation of mayor pro tempore.

But it adds a sixth seat to the council: a mayor elected from any of the five wards. That person, when elected, would have the same powers and duties of other council members, except when it comes to voting.

With the new addition, any council action would require the approval of four council members, rather than the current three.

The election is Nov. 5.

Current Mayor Danny Dunagan, who is in the second year of a two-year term, represents Ward 1, and Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem George Wangemann represents Ward 4.

School board member David Syfan serves Ward 1 and Delores Diaz, Ward 4.

Source: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/78453/

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