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The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted to move away from the current seniority-based rotation policy by implementing a district rotation policy.
Supervisors appointed Vice President Warren Slocum and Supervisor David Canepa to the president and vice president seats, respectively.
Supervisor Ray Mueller, who proposed the idea to the board during its Tuesday, Dec. 12 meeting, said the board would rotate once a year, beginning with Districts 4 and 5 so that Slocum and Canepa can serve as they expected, followed by Districts 2, 3 and 1.
“So that no district will ever go longer than five years without serving in the presidency, recognizing that we are districts and district elected, and each district has its own specific needs,” Mueller said.
If the policy remained status quo, it would have meant Supervisor Noelia Corzo and Mueller could be left out of leadership roles in their first terms on the board, which Mueller brought to the attention of the board during a Nov. 14 meeting where Supervisor Dave Pine proposed to continue the informal process of electing a president and vice president for the board based on seniority or years of service.
During that meeting, Mueller said when he served on Menlo Park’s City Council, the mayor rotation prioritized new council members.
“One of my colleagues, who I served with for two terms for eight years, only served as mayor once, but she graciously accepted that to give the others opportunities to have new voices heard and welcomed into leadership,” Mueller previously said.
During that meeting, he added that it’s possible to only run for one term for various reasons. Still, all council members were allowed to serve as mayor under the Menlo Park mayor rotation process.
The board unanimously approved the new rotation policy on Tuesday, and Slocum and Canepa will be named president and vice president at the beginning of next year.
