Given Chula Vista’s current electoral system, Tuesday night’s changing of the guard at City Hall was more “so long” rather than “goodbye.”
While outgoing mayor Cheryl Cox and council member Rudy Ramirez delivered speeches marking the end of their eight years on the council, anyone shedding tears of finality and loss would have been heartened to remember things don’t dramatically change in Chula Vista.
Currently the rules state that a member of the City Council terms out after two successive terms. After a one year absence they are free to run again.
The chances of that spongy term limit changing any time soon is about as likely as a bowl of squiggling red Jell-O chipping a newborn’s tooth.
Mayor Mary Salas benefitted from the revolving door policy first by getting elected to the council two years ago (after having already served from 1996 through 2004) and then using that position as a springboard to the mayor’s office this year.
John McCann too is making a comeback, returning to the dais after a four-year stint as a member of the Sweetwater Union High School District board of trustees. He served on the City Council from 2002 through 2010. And had it not been McCann it would have been Steve Padilla, who was mayor of Chula Vista from 2002 to 2006 and a city councilman four years prior.
Or instead of Salas it could have been Jerry Rindone, who served a total of 16 years on the City Council prior to losing his bid for mayor this year.
If two of the faces on the current City Council benefitted and their two dispatched opponents also could have benefitted had the votes gone their way, where is there any indication that a change in policy is on the horizon?
Residents seemingly don’t have an appetite for change —ultimately they’re responsible for catapulting all of these repeat politicians back into office.
Nor has there been a clamor for a voter-driven ballot initiative to put a real end to the amount of time any one person can spend collecting and exerting power and influence in local government. The City Hall return policy is in place and it won’t be budged. Which brings us back to Cox and Ramirez.
Neither individual has given any indication we’ll see their name on the ballot two years from now. While both have expressed appreciation and respect for public service, it’s not even been a week since they left City Hall with their belongings and they are probably enjoying their time off.
But the option to come back is there. Waiting. For residents who enjoyed what they did for the city with the time they had, there must be solace in that bit of knowledge.
So for the time being it’s not goodbye, Cheryl, goodbye Rudy. It’s more of a see you next time. The door is always open.
Always.
