san josé vs...
The “San José vs...” campaign uses benchmarking data from San José CARES to explore how our community compares to other big cities.
While not a competition, San José vs... helps frame our understanding of San José's status as the nation's tenth largest city—celebrating points of pride and illuminating areas where we may not be living up to our potential.
Ranking: Largest U.S. / (CA) Cities by Population
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA (1)
- Chicago, IL
- Houston, TX
- Phoenix, AZ
- Philadelphia, PA
- San Antonia, TX
- Dallas, TX
- San Diego, CA (2)
- San José, CA (3)
- Detroit, MI
- San Francisco, CA (4)
San José vs. the Strong Mayor: San Diego Measure D (June 2010)
The City of San José follows a Council-Manager form of government. In San José, the mayor is a separately-elected member of the city council and a council-appointed professional city manager is the City's chief administrative officer, responsible to the Council for the day-to-day operations of the City.
In 2004, the City of San Diego, the next largest city to San José, “experimented” with moving to a Strong Mayor form of government, in which the elected mayor is the city's chief administrative officer, independent of the city council. The Strong Mayor functions much like a chief executive in California and federal governments, including appointing senior officials and having veto power.
With the “experiment” concluded, San Diego voters are being asked in Measure D (June 2010) whether to return to the Council-Manager model, in which case the mayor would return to the city council and a professional city manager would be hired to run the city under council direction; or, to retain the Strong Mayor model, in which case the proposal would increase the votes necessary for the council to override a veto to 2/3 and a new council district would be added to prevent tie votes.
Key arguments on Measure D follow, as published in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
- Decision sought on ‘strong mayor’
- Bigger San Diego City Council has its critics
- Pro: Checks, balances and accountability
- Con: Mayor must communicate, vote in open
For comparison, excluding San Diego, five of the ten largest U.S. cities follow the Strong Mayor model. Four, including San José, Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix—often considered one of the best-run cities, as was San Diego until recently—follow the Council-Manager model.
Of the ten largest cities in California six, excluding San Diego, follow the Strong Mayor model and three, including San José, follow the Council-Manager model.