San Bruno Councilmember Seeks To End City's Mayoral Elections

SAN BRUNO, CA — A San Bruno councilmember is calling for the city to stop electing its mayor at-large and instead align itself with the rest of the cities in San Mateo County by rotating the title of mayor.

During a council meeting Tuesday, Councilmember Linda Mason introduced the possibility of placing the question in front of the city’s voters as part of this year’s gubernatorial recall election.

Mason said that though the mayorship is largely a symbolic role, the mayor still has opportunities that other councilmembers are not provided and that rotating the title would ensure equity.

San Bruno hasn’t had a female mayor in over 20 years, according to Mason, who claimed that when she ran for mayor last year, she was asked by a fellow official why she didn’t first get the permission from the current mayor. Mason was elected to the council in 2019 and lost in the 2020 mayoral race to incumbent Rico Medina.

“For some, it might not matter,” Mason said. “But for me as an elected official who ran on the idea of change, as the only female sitting councilmember, I think it does matter. By ensuring a rotating mayor, we can ensure that those elected to office, and more importantly, those San Bruno residents we all represent are represented on a rotating basis reflecting our constituency.”

Mason said that she wasn’t calling for the change as a reflection of Medina’s performance as mayor but instead seeking to make good on a campaign process and let the voters decide.

“It’s imperative that we offer our residents the opportunity to make this decision as the city continues to change and grow,” Mason said.

The other 19 cities in San Mateo County do not elect their mayor independently. Instead, councilmembers are elected and the mayorship rotates among the councilmembers.

Mason received tentative support from the other councilmembers, depending on the cost of placing the item on the ballot. San Bruno is also set to go through a redistricting process, which means councilmembers in the future will be chosen to represent a particular district of the city rather than serving the city at-large — a change that may complicate the role of a mayor who is also a councilmember. Half Moon Bay will begin electing its mayor at-large next year after redistricting.

In San Bruno, the mayor is elected via a separate vote and serves a two-year term, though as custom in smaller jurisdictions, they do not have much more authority than the rest of the council other than leading meetings. Councilmembers said during Tuesday’s meeting that San Bruno strayed from the rest of the county when there was a dispute one year over which councilmember would rotate to the title of mayor, leading to the council deciding that the choice should be made by voters.

“Maybe enough time has gone by and opinions have changed,” Councilmember Michael Salazar said.

San Bruno operates under a council-manager form of government in which the city manager — who is chosen by the council and not elected by residents — holds the actual governing power as the chief executive officer of the city who enacts the council’s policies and supervises city staff.

San Bruno has had just three mayors in the last 22 years as there is no term limit.

“It’s odd that we do have it, that there’s one out of 20 cities but San Bruno does its own thing,” Councilmember Marty Medina said. “This is something the voters would get to decide.”