Behnke And Sofia Remain As Mayor And Vice Mayor of Battle Creek
The Battle Creek City Commission has chosen to let the current mayor and vice mayor of the City serve another year.
Last November, the commission voted to elect Commissioner Mark Behnke as mayor, and Sherry Sofia became the vice mayor in August after Dave Walters resigned from the Commission. WWMT says that the Commission voted Tuesday to allow them to continue to serve.
Currently, Battle Creek’s mayor and vice mayor are elected by the commissioners from among their own ranks every year, but there are efforts to change that; the Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee, which was created to review Battle Creek’s city charter, has recommended that among other things the mayor and vice mayor be elected by the citizens of the city itself.
The Commission is currently in the process of considering the proposed changes the BRAC put forward. Besides changes to the mayoral process, they also recommended that the current makeup of the commission be changed from 5 ward members and 4 at-large members, to 7 ward members and 2 at-large; those at-large commissioners would then be the mayor and vice mayor.