Perhaps the real emphasis should not be on changing who is Mayor. It seems to me that anyone who is a little forward thinking gets shouted down by the current council without real debate on what the public may or may not want.
Take the public's desire to have limestone rather than totally abandoning stone on City Hall. That should have provoked more debate, but didn't.
Take the suggestion of keeping staff in their current location and finding an alternative use for the current City Hall. That idea should have gotten more consideration than it did. No one seems to have considered buying the Mall, staying there, but continuing with the reno at City Hall because it's mostly promised and would cost to back out of and then finding an alternative use for the building and saving money by not moving back there and recouping money over time, possibly from the alternative use for City Hall.
So, to my point, the next council election emphasis should be upon having people campaign against the group of councillors who are entrenched in old ideas and thinking patterns and have consistently opposed the current Mayor and who may oppose any Mayor who's suggestions for a future direction don't fit in with their views. A reduction of bias.
As I understood it, you elected someone to put forward the opinions of the people and take these into consideration, not merely to set their own agendas. Ugh, have to stop now, having Gordon Brown rage
and no body elected the bugger.