That's fine so long as the drummer city officials, both elected and appointed, march to is consistent with the law.

The definition of pro tem is "for the time being; temporary 0r temporarily"Perhaps its a matter of semantics, but it means that the Council will still appoint someone to the position, It does not insure that person will be the Mayor pro tem. The Mayor pro tem acts for the mayor in his absence or if he is incapacitated not permanently.

The second Mayor Bunker's resignation took effect, the position was vacant and the Mayor pro tem would act as Mayor until the Council made a permanent decision.

The Chief acting as the City Manager by direction of the Coucil-elected Mayor, is light years from the Chief acting as Mayor by direction of the outgoing Mayor while the Mayor pro tem sitting around twiddling his/her thumbs.

But, it is Ocean Shores.

As it relates to city government "Pro tempore" is a legal term. Stash is exactly right as to normal cit governments, which, of coiusre does not include Ocean Shores.

Of course I suppose one can not reasonably expect normal city government, conducted in accordance with the law, when its management is drawn from a population of folks who thought it prudent to buy property on an eroding sand spit which will be over run by the next tsunami.

Just a point, Mayor Bunkers was not elected by the Council, but ran for Mayor in an election and was elected by the people

What is your point?

And the Councilmember selected as Mayor Pro-tem was elected by the people, too.

This is all true, but he was not elected Mayor Pro Tem by the people. I don/t want to get into a contest of words here. I was at the Council meeting when Dean resigned and I am simply repeating what I heard. Since our City Attorney was present and agreed with the proceedings I assumed them to be correct

What Stash was saying is that when Mike Wilson, the former Police Chief, was appointed to act as interim City Manager by the City Council, Ocean Shores had a Manager/Council form of government. It was okay for an appointed city official to serve in another appointed official capacity. But now Ocean Shores has a Mayor/Council form of government. State law does not allow an appointed city official, or for that matter, any city employee, to serve in an elected official capacity in the same city. You can be either a city employee, or an elected official, but not both at the same time.

Ocean Shores is new to the Strong Mayor form of government. That all of the i's and t's haven't been dotted or crossed is somewhat understandable.

With a Mayor/Council, when functioning properly, safeguards are put in place. The elected members of Council select a "Mayor Pro-Tempore", usually the Council President, to function in the absense of the Mayor.

If the Mayor gets the flu and can't make the meeting or needs to be at the hospital with a sick relative or takes a well-deserved vacation to Hawaii, the "Mayor Pro-tempore" steps in and fulfills the function. He/she fills that function completely. Meaning, he can sign checks, run meetings, etc. For all I know they can make appointments and fire staff. Of course the Mayor could re-hire the fired employee as soon as he returns. I'm not sure if they could recind the appointment.

The Mayor Pro-Temp also functions as the Mayor in the event of a death or resignation. It's like the Vice-President in our Federal system or the Lt. Governor in our State system.

I am surprised the attorney hasn't addressed this with ordinances before this and that he would give the advice he's given in this situation.

That being said, this wouldn't be the first time I was wrong if there is another legal way... like the one the City of Ocean Shores seems to think is ok.

I'm hoping what really happened is that Bunkers said, "Mike, help with the day to day stuff while the Mayor gets his feet under him or makes a change."

But, the "Mayor Pro Tempore" is the Mayor and the Police Chief answers to him unless Ocean Shores is even more screwed up than people think.