Removing a Locally Elected Official?

[Zardnaar]

Presidents and Prime Ministers usually have some sort of mechanism to remove them if need be. Not talking about scheduled elections.

In NZ however we don't have a mechanism for removing a major from office. The best we can do is the central government can fire a towns council and sideline the Mayor and appoint commissioners. Major keeps his job and paycheck has no power.

This has happened recently two years ago. Mayor quit due to council infighting government intervened and fired them. They've had no elected representatives since.

Voter turnout is very low in local body elections and a mayor was elected in Auckland with less than 20% of the vote. And he's incompetent.

I've seen elections where only 10% of the inhabitants vote (vs potential voters idk how many eligible voters there are). Mostly old people.

I can't talk never voted in local body elections but we've never had anyone totally incompetent for the job get elected.

In my hometown the local business roundtable took turns being mayor. Sure enough they always won. Tbf no complete crappers were elected.

We also had one mayor go senile on the job and refuse to step down (got destroyed in next elections).

So how does it work overseas?

 

[stinkubus]

In the US is going to vary state to state and even municipality to municipality.

The only thing I know for certain is that tarring and feathering works no matter who you are or where you happen to be!

 

[Bamspeedy]

In the US, to remove a city official before a normal, regular election its typically either recall election or city council votes him out.

A coup is pretty rare.

A 23-Year-Old Mayor Tried Trump’s Stolen Election Playbook. Only It Worked.

“I’ve... seldom seen a political takeover that was this sleazy, and yet this well-orchestrated,” one local columnist wrote.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[Arwon]

Pretty rare for Commonwealth parliamentary systems to have popular recall mechanisms, as of 2010 a NSW report I found said only British Columbia had such a mechanism. The UK implemented one in 2015.

Some automatic constitutional provisions can cause someone to be automatically removed, a common one is conviction of a crime making someone ineligible to continue being in parliament.

 

[Quintillus]

In Ohio, members of the state legislature can be voted out of office by a supermajority (2/3, IIRC) of their peers. They can also have their committee assignments revoked by their peers.

These provisions are rarely used, but last year the former head of the legislature was kicked out by a 75-24 bipartisan vote, after having already lost his committee positions unanimously, due to a large corruption scandal (the infamous House Bill 6) that he was personally involved in orchestrating. The FBI is still investigating but there is little doubt among the public that he is guilty. The prior time a legislator was kicked out was in 1857, when someone was kicked out for punching another legislator.

I don't know what the local regulations, if any, are on removing sitting officials.

I am surprised to hear the turnout is so low in New Zealand for local elections. I thought it was low in the U.S. and maybe in some parts it is that low, but I don't think it's that low here? It does depend on when they happen though, turnout will be higher in years with Congressional elections (every other year), and higher if the election is in November than if it's in May or August.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Pretty rare for Commonwealth parliamentary systems to have popular recall mechanisms, as of 2010 a NSW report I found said only British Columbia had such a mechanism. The UK implemented one in 2015.

Some automatic constitutional provisions can cause someone to be automatically removed, a common one is conviction of a crime making someone ineligible to continue being in parliament.

Recall legislation is one of those things always promised, but never implemented. Kinda like Justin Trudeau's boast that 2015 would be the last election in which we had the FPTP system.

First, he tried to stack the committee with Liberals, and when the results were for proportional representation rather than ranked ballot, he fired the current cabinet minister in charge, and replaced her with another whose first job was to lie to the country and say that "a consensus could not be reached, so we're keeping FPTP, and nobody cares about this by now anyway."

Our next federal election is scheduled for October 2025. I will be surprised if there isn't one before that, or if we actually do make it that far, I will be surprised if Trudeau is still the Liberal leader. If he is... we're screwed, because the voters will probably flip over to the Reformacons, and it was bad enough the last time.

 

[Zardnaar]

In Ohio, members of the state legislature can be voted out of office by a supermajority (2/3, IIRC) of their peers. They can also have their committee assignments revoked by their peers.

These provisions are rarely used, but last year the former head of the legislature was kicked out by a 75-24 bipartisan vote, after having already lost his committee positions unanimously, due to a large corruption scandal (the infamous House Bill 6) that he was personally involved in orchestrating. The FBI is still investigating but there is little doubt among the public that he is guilty. The prior time a legislator was kicked out was in 1857, when someone was kicked out for punching another legislator.

I don't know what the local regulations, if any, are on removing sitting officials.

I am surprised to hear the turnout is so low in New Zealand for local elections. I thought it was low in the U.S. and maybe in some parts it is that low, but I don't think it's that low here? It does depend on when they happen though, turnout will be higher in years with Congressional elections (every other year), and higher if the election is in November than if it's in May or August.

Auckland turnout was 35%, 42% overall iirc. National election 75%ish iirc

My city has 120k people one year 14k votes were cast. Not sure about the % of eligible voters.

Government looks more or less like the country in ethnicity. Local bodies tend to be pale,ale and old. Aucklands mayor is 74. And terrible.