The Davis City Council will keep choosing its own mayor and vice mayor. On Oct. 6, the council voted 4-1 to continue its current process, in which members vote among themselves to fill the one-year posts, with the vice mayor casting the only no vote. The council's Oct. 20 long-range calendar lists the designation of the 2027 mayor and vice mayor for its Dec. 15 meeting, along with declaring election results and council reorganization; the calendar is subject to change.
Staff had laid out alternatives: rotating the mayor's seat among the five council districts in one of two orders, or drawing lots among members willing to serve, possibly weighted by seniority. Staff also asked the council to decide whether newly elected members should serve a minimum time before becoming mayor and how to count a partial term. One council member suggested a secret, ranked-choice ballot counted by city staff, to spare colleagues an uncomfortable public debate about one another's qualifications and to avoid repeated tie votes. Staff said they would need to research whether a secret ballot is allowed.
Members split over what matters most. Supporters of a rotation said it would bring certainty and predictability, take personal issues out of the choice, and ensure every district eventually holds the mayor's seat; under one proposed order, members noted, a district would not come up again for years. Another member argued the council should pick whoever is best at building consensus and running meetings, and moved to keep the current process. A member who favored rotation said it was extremely important that council votes stay public rather than secret. Members noted the mayor still has just one vote; the job is mainly to run meetings and be the face of the city, with some influence over what reaches the agenda.
The question has come up before. When the council chose its 2026 mayor last December, staff explained the criteria in a council resolution: seniority on the council, the ability to build consensus, experience presiding over legislative bodies and other factors that promote good governance. Members raised a rotation and a directly elected mayor; staff said an elected mayor would require redistricting, because as a general law city Davis can choose only from the election structures state law allows. On Oct. 6 one member said the council had been going back and forth for about five years and needed to settle the question.
In a separate vote on Oct. 6, the council moved to start its regular meetings at 5:30 p.m., an hour earlier than the current 6:30 p.m. One member had argued that 6:30 works better for residents who get out of work later. Members said they did not want the change to take effect before the new calendar year. On Oct. 20 the council introduced the ordinance making the change as part of its consent calendar, which passed with no votes against. The city clerk's report says the council determined the 5:30 p.m. start would take effect in January 2027. The ordinance must return for adoption at a later meeting; the council's next regular meeting is Nov. 17.
Members also discussed, without taking a vote, hearing general public comment in a set window at the start of meetings, such as 30 minutes, and the rest at the end, so people need not wait late into the night. Staff said agendas would need new language to make that clear, and that everyone who wants to speak on an item the council is about to act on, such as the consent calendar, must still be heard before the vote. The council also signaled support for re-forming a subcommittee to draft a legislative platform, which lets the city respond to requests to back state legislation; members said that work could wait until January.