Bristol may have voted ‘yes’ to a directly-elected mayor, but there are still many questions over what happens next and how the mayor will operate.
When will the election for a directly-elected mayor take place?
On November 15, 2012. In the meantime, the council will continue to be run by a leader who is an elected councillor chosen by a vote of the other elected councillors.
The next leader and their cabinet will be chosen and agreed at the full council meeting on Tuesday, May 15.
Who will be able to stand?
Anyone over 18 who lives, works or occupies land as owner or tenant in Bristol, will be able to stand in the election, if properly nominated.
Candidates can be either independent or stand on behalf of a political party.
Current or former councillors or MPs are able to stand, as would anyone else eligible. If a councillor stands and they are successful in the election, then they will be required to give up their councillor role.
Who gets to vote?
Everybody aged 18 or above, who lives in the City of Bristol, is on the Electoral Register and is permitted to vote in local elections.
The Electoral Register is a list of people in the Bristol area who are eligible to vote in an election.
How often will elections take place for an elected mayor?
Every four years. The next election following the election in November 2012 will be in May 2016. This will mean that the first term of office will only be three and a half years.
How much will the elected mayor be paid?
What the elected Mayor will be paid is set by full council following recommendation by an independent Remuneration Panel. The remuneration has not yet been considered or set, though (judging by the other areas that have moved from a Leader to an elected mayor) it may well be more than the payment to a Council Leader.
Will there still be a Lord Mayor when the elected Mayor is in place?
Yes. The Chair of the Council, who cannot be the elected Mayor, will continue to be known as the Lord Mayor.
The Lord Mayor is one of the 70 elected councillors chosen annually by full council and dates back to 1899 and before that as “Mayor” to the year 1216. The Lord Mayor is usually someone who has been a councillor for a number of years, and is a new appointment every year. The office of Lord Mayor is a (largely) ceremonial post, and by tradition, the councillor who holds that office takes no part in the political life of the council for their year of office.
The roles of directly elected Mayor and Lord Mayor are very different – although the similarity of the titles might prove a little confusing sometimes.
Can the elected Mayor be removed by the Council during their term of office?
No, the elected mayor holds office for four years and cannot be voted out of office by councillors.
Now that we have chosen an elected mayor system, will we have this system indefinitely?
Yes, unless a new is passed by Parliament to allow Bristol voters to swap back to the previous system if they don’t want to carry on having a directly elected Mayoral system.
Cabinet and deputies
The elected Mayor will appoint a cabinet of at least two and up to nine Councillors, one of whom would be appointed as Deputy Mayor. Together they are responsible for a range of council services – from social care to waste collections – with a turnover of around £1 billion a year.
Will the elected mayor have a deputy?
Yes.
Decision making
The elected Mayor will decide on which kind of decisions are taken by either:
* themselves individually
* or delegated to the Cabinet (known as the Executive)
* or delegated to individual Cabinet members
* or delegated to officers.
All key decisions must be made in public unless the matter is confidential.
Most decision making of the council is delegated down to officers because of the volume of decisions that must be made.
Committees
The council will still appoint and maintain a range of committees including:
* Planning
* Licensing
* Overview and Scrutiny and
* Audit Committees.
The law requires that some important decisions will continue to be taken independently of an elected Mayor.
Will the elected Mayor have extra legal powers that the council doesn’t currently have to help them make Bristol a better city?
No. The elected Mayor doesn’t have any extra formal legal powers.
