On Sept 3, 2009, at a special meeting of the City of China, TX City Council, Mayor William (Butch) Sanders resigned his post.  This was a shocking development to me.  It was more shocking to me than to the other council members because a few months ago, I was chosen by the council, at the Mayor’s request, to be the City of China’s Mayor Pro-Tem. 

For those of you who don’t know, Mayor Pro-Tem is like the Vice-Mayor or, in some cases, the Mayor of Vice.  The term pro-tem is from the Latin, pro tempore, which roughly translates to “for the time being.”

Being Mayor Pro-Tem for the City of China isn’t much of a burden.  One has only to be available when the Mayor is not.  This only requires signing a check once in a while, chairing the occasional Council meeting, authorizing someone’s vacation or performing some other mundane task that generally has little effect on the over-all well-being of the City.  However, if the Mayor is no longer the Mayor (I didn’t see that coming) the Mayor Pro-Tem is now in charge of the day-to-day operations of the City.  And so I have been for two weeks now.

I have hit the ground stumbling.  Well, maybe not so much stumbling as running faster than I was prepared to, considering that, I wasn’t prepared at all.  From day one, my new “Mayor phone” has been ringing like a “free game” bumper on a pinball machine. So far, I have authorized expenditures for repairs to sewer lift pumps, water wells and a copy machine, allowed time off for employees, commiserated with a fellow whose bees were killed by the spray from the mosquito plane, approved overtime, reviewed contracts, created the agenda for this month’s regular meeting, and learned more about water treatment and sewer plants than I thought I’d ever need to know.

My “Mayor phone” started ringing the morning following the Mayor’s resignation, twice, in fact, before I arrived at my regular job at 7:30a.m. It hasn't stopped ringing since.  Tuesday, a woman called me to inform me that her neighbors are drug dealers and I should do something about it.

“Yes, Ma’am, I’ll get right on it.”

And yesterday, I was informed by the City Secretary that the County Sheriff had been  called out and had given city employees a written warning for burning during a, currently in effect, burn ban.  (don’t ask)

Thursday, a woman called City Hall to find out why the old Mayor had resigned.  “I liked him,” she said, “He started the recycling program.” 

“No, Ma’am,” the city clerk informed her.  “Mr. Walker started our recycling program.  Mr. Walker is now acting as our Mayor.”

“Oh, well, good.  Then I like him too!” 

Score one for the “good guys’.

In addition to all that day-to-day type stuff, my most taxing (no pun intended) task so far is the creation of the yearly budget for both the water/sewer department and the general fund

The budgets, by law, must be approved by Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year.  Council will have an opportunity to amend, tweak and or ameliorate the budget before, hopefully, adopting it.

This has just been the last two weeks. 

Last night, the City Council met and the first item on the agenda (my agenda) is for Council to take action regarding the Mayor position.  Four options were available to the Council on this issue:  One: they could take no action at all.  This would effectively leave me as the de facto Mayor until the Council should take up the issue again or until the Mayor’s term of office expires in May of 2011.  Two: They could appoint someone from the Council or any other citizen of China as Mayor.  Three:  They could call for a special election.  This is the least likely scenario, as it would cost the City thousands of citizen dollars. Four:  They could appoint me as Mayor and select another Mayor Pro-Tem.  The talk around town has been that this is the action the Council will most likely choose.  Many of China’s residents have already started calling me, Mr. Mayor. 

For my part, I don’t believe that the Council choosing me as the City’s chief steward was a forgone conclusion.  I am well known as something of a rebel and a rabble-rouser.  I am often the lone dissenting vote on this or that issue before the council.  I challenge easy conclusions and conventional wisdom.  I am notoriously pro-worker and pro-little guy. If not “anti” I am, at least, suspicious of money interests.  By nature, I am also suspicious of government in, general and those in power, specifically.  Anyone starting to see any irony here?

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So, while I didn’t exactly wake up with the weight of the world on my shoulders this morning, I do bear the weight of at least 1,112 hardy souls.  On the upside, my wife had a new experience last night; she had never made love to a Mayor before.

So, for the next two years I will do my best to serve the people of China, TX.  This oughta be fun. I just hope it doesn’t mean that I have to become respectable.

I’ll keep ya’ll posted.