Voters in Sweet Home don’t get to choose their city’s mayor. A proposal on the May ballot would change that.
Under the Sweet Home charter, the city councilors vote amongst themselves on who serves as mayor. According to Cecily Pretty, the deputy city manager, there were some talks in the community to start a petition drive to put an amendment to the charter on the ballot last year.
In response, councilors in February passed a resolution to put an amendment on this year’s ballot to turn that responsibility over to city voters.
If the charter amendment passes, one city council position will be eliminated to make room for a mayor position. Registered voters would then vote directly on who will be elected as mayor for each two-year term.
Pretty said this amendment has long been talked about within the community.
“It's been going on for years, to my understanding,” said Pretty. “And the reality is most cities do directly elect their mayor, so there was some feeling in the community that they wanted to be able to do the same thing.”
The amendment would not change the power or duties of the mayor.
Additionally, voters in Sweet Home will decide whether two 5-year property tax levies that fund the police and the libraries will be renewed. The levies will maintain its current rates and will not increase over time.
Pretty said all of the city’s police and library funding comes from the levies.
“Essentially, if those levies don’t pass, we would be in a very difficult position where we would either have to look at cutting other city services to sustain their funding,” explained Pretty. “Or we would just have to close our library and our police department.”
Previously, when the levies appeared on the 2020 ballot, voters in the Linn County community approved them with over 70% support.
