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In Chico, as most people may know, government is a weak-mayor system. That is, the mayor, currently Scott Gruendl, isn’t elected by the voters, but rather by his or her council colleagues. The vice mayor also is chosen that way. As one would probably assume, both posts typically are held either by progressives or conservatives—whichever group holds the council majority. In other words, the lefties vote in their peeps, and vice versa.

In August 2013, however, that partisan tradition on this “nonpartisan” panel came to a halt. When Councilwoman Mary Goloff announced she was stepping down as mayor, the council voted in Gruendl as mayor and Councilman Mark Sorensen as vice mayor. The decisions weren’t unanimous. Councilman Sean Morgan voted no on installing Gruendl as mayor, and Councilman Randall Stone and Councilwoman Ann Schwab said nay to Sorensen being vice mayor.

Over the past 15 months, the council’s two honorary leaders worked well together despite their ideological differences.

I’m curious to see what’s going to happen when the gavel changes hands next month during the swearing in of incumbent Sorensen, along with newcomers Reanette Fillmer and Andrew Coolidge. Obviously, with a conservative majority, Sorensen is next in line for mayor. He seems like the kind of guy who likes ribbon-cuttings, and I’m sure he’ll do fine leading the meetings—one of the other mayoral chores.

The question in my mind is where the panel will go with the vice mayor post. Will the conservative majority be flexible and vote in one of the three progressives? Or will they defer to Morgan, the junior conservative?

I think it’s safe to say Schwab won’t get a nod here. But what about Stone or Councilwoman Tami Ritter? Stone has been the most vocal about reining in city employee salaries and benefits—a position that ought to be backed by the conservatives. And Ritter has been a curious and thoughtful representative who goes her own way—such as voting in favor of Sorensen for vice mayor. Either would do an excellent job in this role and the gesture would continue the good will that started with the pairing of Sorensen and Gruendl. Plus, neither Ritter nor Stone has dropped an F-bomb from the dais.

Speaking of that faux pas by Morgan, the guy really needs to check himself on his behavior at city meetings. In my many years of covering the City Council, I’ve seen eye-rolling and sighs on occasion. Goloff has even been called out by members of the public for it. But I’ve never seen such disrespectful behavior from a seated member of the City Council as I have from Morgan—eye-rolling, whispering, guffaws, or just total disengagement when the subject wasn’t his cup of tea. Thing is, he, like everyone else who is elected, represents Chico as a whole—not just those who think like he does and the special interests who helped elect him. In short, Morgan has a lot of maturing to do.

Then again, as we say in the newspaper business, he makes for great copy. Hell, why not make him the mayor?