Mayor of Santa Christina
The Mayor of Santa Christina is the elected chief executive of the Georgeland city of Santa Christina. The office has existed in its current form since 1948. The office administers most city services, including emergency services, police and public agencies. The Mayor is elected for a four-year term. There are no limits on the number of terms a Mayor may serve.
The annual city budget allocated to Georgeland is the highest in Georgeland, despite the city being smaller than Doubledance. The city employs 38,000 people and spends approximately $540 million every year. The Mayor is therefore often referred to as the most powerful mayor in Georgeland.
The Mayor's office is located in the Santa Christina Town Hall. The Mayor has jurisdiction over the entire city's metropolitan area. Prior to 1948, the Mayor of Santa Christina was responsible only for the inner-city area, with each modern-day borough constituting its own city.
Two Mayors of Santa Christina; Lois Daniels and Charlton Robards, have become President of Georgeland following their tenure.
History of the Office
The office of Mayor was first created in 1822, though at the time the settlement was known as New Coventry and with a population of only 15,000. The Mayor was an unpaid, unofficial position. In 1836, New Coventry was chosen as Georgeland's seat of colonial administration and was granted its own city council and Mayor. The Mayor continued to serve as an elected member of the City Council for over a century. From 1877, the position was known as Lord Mayor. Around this time, satellite cities began to emerge and the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor shrank in size considerably.
In 1911 the city was renamed again, to Santa Christina, but the position of Lord Mayor remained unchanged. Even after 1929, when Georgeland seceded from the British Empire, the title remained.
In 1940 the firebrand Socialist George Garretty was elected Lord Mayor. He would serve for two decades in the mayor's office and transformed the city from an industrial powerbase to a tourist haven and cultural and financial capital.
In 1948, local government reforms amalgamated the municipal councils of Santa Christina and replaced each individual mayor and Lord Mayor with a single office. Garretty continued in that office until 1960. The Mayoralty rotated frequently between the Labour and Conservative parties from 1948, with several incumbents serving from each party. The position is always highly-contested with a wide field of candidates.
In 2000, Geraldine McLean was elected as the city's first woman Mayor. A Liberal, McLean was also the first mayor to not come from either the Labour or Tory parties (though she had been a Labour councillor prior to the Liberal Party's foundation in 1999).
Lois Daniels won the 2004 mayoral election for the Georgeland Alliance, becoming and remaining (as of 2008) the only minor-party Mayor in the country. Daniels has worked effectively with the Liberal Democratic-dominated city council and in many respects has redefined the powers of the office by using it as a platform for lobbying rather than directly influencing the council through political means. In 2008 Daniels ran for President and was elected.
Deputy Mayors
The Mayor is elected on a joint ticket with a Deputy Mayor. The Deputy Mayor acts as Mayor in the Mayor's absence and succeeds to the office in the event of the Mayor's death or resignation. The Deputy Mayor is the acts as the Mayor's chief representative in the Council chamber; prior to 2000 the Deputy Mayor was also the council's presiding officer, a role now performed by the Council President.
Santa Christina's Deputy Mayor is the only one in the country elected on a joint ticket with the Mayor; however, the Mayor can dismiss the Deputy Mayor at any time. The Mayor can appoint a new Deputy Mayor but the Council must vote to accept the appointment. This became an issue following Charlton Robards' appointment as President in September 2017. The deputy mayor position was filled by Ellen Yap, who had been elected in 2016 but had already resigned, with her resignation due to take effect at the end of the month. Ken Darrow had already been appointed to replace Yap, but had not yet been sworn in. The City Council acknowledged Darrow as the Deputy Mayor-elect, but her position was challenged by seven members of the Council. Pending a court ruling, Yap served as interim mayor for five weeks, until the Supreme Court ruled Darrow was the rightful successor to the position. Darrow was then sworn in as Mayor.
The current Deputy Mayor is Derek Maddox, appointed by Darrow and ratified by the Council on 27 November 2017.
Succession
In the event of the Mayor's death or resignation, the Deputy Mayor becomes the new Mayor for the remainder of the term. The City Council makes provision in the event the Deputy Mayor is unable or unwilling to assume office - in that event, the office falls to the President of the Council, then to the most senior member of the council. See above for the controversy around the succession to the Robards mayoralty in 2017.