A major plan has been proposed that could begin the process of removing the position of the Elected Mayor of Liverpool.
The city's ruling Labour group has put forward a motion to next week's full council meeting that will aim to begin the process that many believe will see the mayoralty removed after 10 years.
In 2012, the city council, under the leadership of Joe Anderson, voted to change the city's leadership model - with Mr Anderson taking up the position of executive Mayor and the additional powers that came with it.
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This was done without a referendum or public vote, but through a vote amongst councillors.
Mr Anderson was in his position until December 2020, when he was arrested as part of a corruption investigation and stepped down.
He has not been charged and denies wrongdoing.
He was replaced by Joanne Anderson (no relation), who made history and became the first black woman to lead a major UK city as she was elected mayor in May last year.
Mayor Anderson herself had previously campaigned for the removal of the mayoral position and said she wanted to give the people of the city a say on how they are governed.
This correlated with the Labour group's previous commitment to hold a referendum by 2023.
However, the situation has changed somewhat since that point, following a damning government inspection that lifted the lid on huge failings at the city council.
As part of the government-ordered improvement plan that arrived following Max Caller's inspection, the council will now move to holding all-out elections every four years, rather than electing a third of councillors in every three of four years.
This means that the next local elections in Liverpool will be held in 2023 - and means the council must sort out the situation around the mayoralty this year.
The Labour group council motion argues that, with no elections taking place this year and ongoing cuts and budget pressures, the authority cannot justify spending £450,000 on a standalone public vote.
Instead, the proposal plans to hold a 'full and meaningful consultation' that it says will give 'every person living and working in the city a chance to have their say on the future governance arrangements for Liverpool' - for a much lower cost.
The motion explains: "The full and meaningful consultation would run from March 2022 – June 2022.
"It is estimated that the cost of this consultation would be in the region of £120,000.
"This would include a letter to every household, business and stakeholder organisation in the city.
"The consultation process would offer information on governance models and will also include a mechanism to run an informal, non-legally binding poll/referendum for Liverpool residents."
If approved, the consultation process would be followed with a report to the council's Electoral Committee/Audit and Governance Select Committee and the results would be taken to a full council meeting, where a vote on the decision would be made.
The idea is that the decision on whether to remove the mayoralty would then have been taken by the council in time for the all out elections in 2023.
What are the different systems available?
There are three main governance systems used by councils - which will all be part of the consultation exercise.
Mayoral System
This is the system currently in place in Liverpool, having been installed in 2012.
Under this system, mayors are directly elected by the whole city, town or borough.
In Liverpool, the current system means that anyone from any party - or none - could be elected as mayor.
That person, who carries greater executive powers than under other systems, leads the council and selects a cabinet team.
Leader and Cabinet Model
This is the system that was in place in Liverpool before the mayoral model was brought in back in 2012.
It is the most common system used in councils in the UK.
Under this model, the majority ruling party (the party with the most elected councillors), will choose the council leader - who will then choose their cabinet.
Committee System
Another option that will be looked at in the consultation is called the Committee System.
Under this model, a council elects a leader but power is exercised by a number of committees, made up of councillors in proportion of their parties' representation on the council.
Wirral Council is currently operating under this model after it fell into no overall control in 2019.
What the current Mayor says:
Speaking to the ECHO about the process she intends to get underway, Mayor Anderson today said: "The situation changed after we campaigned on the idea of giving the city a referendum on the mayoralty.
"The Secretary of State gave the instructions to move the mayoral election to 2023 along with all other elections. This would have meant a referendum in 2022 would have to be a standalone vote that would cost nearly half a million pounds.
"We believe that doing a consultation will do the same job and provide the same results as a referendum. What is really important is giving the whole city a say and the Labour group has accepted this. Once we get those results we can take action accordingly.
"In this budgeting time, we think this gets the same job."
She added: "If we had a referendum people would criticise us in terms of the budget, and obviously some people aren't happy about doing it this way - but we believe we have come to a compromise that will give us the same results and we will make sure people have their say.
"The city didn't get a say last time, as a resident I wasn't happy about that - so everyone will get a chance to have that say on how they want the city to be run."
Mayor Anderson said she didn't want to be drawn on how she feels about the different governance styles.
"The outcome to me is less important than the city getting a say, I want what the city wants."
Will the motion pass?
The ECHO understands the often fractious and divided Liverpool Labour group was reasonably united in its support for the plan at its most recent group meeting.
This alone should see the motion pass at the council meeting next week.
But it will also receive support from the main opposition group, the Liberal Democrats, who have tried repeatedly to bring an end to the Liverpool mayoralty over the past decade.
Group leader, Cllr Richard Kemp said: "This consultation will put right the injustice done to the people of Liverpool 10 years ago when Labour moved to introduce a mayoralty just two days before the law would have changed to make them hold a referendum. We have asked for either a referendum or a consultation process to be held on no less than 8 occasions since then and our motions have been continually rejected.
"I warned back in 2012, that a Mayoralty would be bad for Liverpool. I hadn’t realised in my worst dreams just how bad.
"We warned in 2012 about the dangers of a mayoralty in that it puts too much power into the hands of one person. We have been proven to be catastrophically correct.
"The timetable then is not yet quite clear. After the 3-month consultation the council has two options. It can hold a referendum on the top two ideas or alternatively, it could then to choose which model to go for given the consultation results. This seems the likely way forward.
"Even then the timescale is unclear. If the council votes to proceed with either a cabinet and leader or committee system and therefore abandons the mayoral model, there would be no election for a mayor in 2023 and we will just choose 85 councillors based on whatever wards the Boundary Commission finally allow.
"We Lib Dems will urge every voter in Liverpool and every business and organisation to express an opinion on this so that the Council will have a clear understanding of the contempt with which the people of Liverpool hold the idea of an Elected Mayor."
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