Santa Rosa City Council sets new rules for selecting mayor pro tem

If Santa Rosa Mayor John Sawyer is unavailable or out of town, Vice Mayor Tom Schwedhelm is supposed to fill in and run City Council meetings.

That’s what vice mayors are for.

But in March neither Sawyer nor Schwedhelm were available to wield the gavel. They were part of a group visiting Santa Rosa’s sister city in Jeju, South Korea.

That created a bit of a problem because the council didn’t have a game plan for how to pick a council member to be mayor in such situations.

City Attorney Caroline Fowler suggested they pick as mayor pro tem the longest serving council member who had the most number of votes in the last election.

Both Ernesto Olivares and Gary Wysocky have been in office eight years, but Olivares was the top vote getter in 2012. Wysocky, who has never served a term as mayor, raised questions at the time about whether this process was fair. He said this week he felt the selection method was “arbitrary.”

The council ultimately followed Fowler’s advice and Olivares was tapped for the temporary post.

To eliminate any future confusion, the council decided Tuesday, with no discussion, to amend its procedures manual to say that if a similar situation arises in the future, the longest serving council member with the most votes should become mayor.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.