UPDATE: Liverpool City Council voted 62 to 3 against, with 12 councillors abstaining in favour of a directly elected mayor to run the city.
There will be no referendum. Nominations from those wanting to run have to be in by noon on April 4.
The election is open to anybody willing to stump up £500 and have the support of a small number of backers, though there have to be residential or business links with Liverpool.
The mayoral election will be on May 3, the same day as the election for councillors. The elected mayor will assume office on May 7, 2012.
Current council leader Joe Anderson emerges as frontrunner to win the job.
Here is what it means, in the view of Larry Neild who exclusively broke the story on Liverpool Confidential three weeks ago.
LIVERPOOL is on the brink of changing the way the city is governed with the introduction of a directly elected Mayor.
The people of the city will decide who is the top honcho in Dale Street, not a small group of councillors huddled around a table in the town hall or Millennium House.
It seems like the perfect solution - allow the voters to choose who they want. But it will be replacing a system dating back to the days of Queen Victoria with what will essentially be a one-man (or one-woman) show.
In 2000, Liverpool had 99 councillors and a load of committees and sub-committees. Despite its faults, it at least meant virtually all decisions affecting the city were decided, on a show of hands, by those 99 councillors.
Fifty or over votes saying yes and it happened; 50 or over votes saying no and it was rejected. People Democracy in action.Council meetings were often nail-biting, cliff hanging occasions, wondering whether particular and sometimes controversial measures would see the light of day.
Some councillors feel virtually redundant or
semi-retired as their power diminishes.
There was a time, in the 1980s, when council meetings started at 11am and the politicians were burning midnight oil in the council chamber until gone midnight. It was decision-making by the people elected by the people to make decisions, and every one of those 99 councillors were vital to this system of people democracy.
In 2000, Prime Minister Tony Blair swept that system away. He wanted a streamlined system of democracy, more engaging, faster and slicker; no more of the months of wrangling as proposals went from sub-committee, to main committee, to the full council, then the supreme body ruling the city.
Joe AndersonIn came a system of rule by cabinet, mirroring in major aspects the way the nation is government. Replace 10 Downing Street with the Leader's office in Dale Street and it works the same way.
Decisions were now being made not on a show of hands by the full council, but on a basis of collective responsibility by the cabinet working with council executive directors.
The role of the city council and the councillors was devalued to such a degree, there is now only a handful of full council meetings each year, The full council fixes Council Tax levels at the annual budget meeting and also decides who should be ceremonial Lord Mayor.
But other decisions are taken by the leader and/or cabinet members.
The fewer council meetings taking place still debate all kinds of issues, but cannot overturn things decided by the cabinet.
The leader is chosen by the political group, so current leader Joe Anderson holds this key role because of the support he receives from Labour councillors. Should they wish to, those Labour councillors could give the Leader his marching orders at any time. He is a popular leader so there are no fears of him being shown the door.
In the good – or some would say – bad old days, the councillors would decide on council house rents, entrance fees for swimming pools, car parking charges, building or closing of schools. Now those decisions are taken by executive cabinet councillors and executive directors.
An elected mayor will essentially have all of the power, and though there will be cabinet members, it is the mayor who makes the decisions.
Essentially it means in the space of just over a decade, local decision making has moved from a show of hands by 99 elected councillors to a thumbs up or rejection by a single person, the mayor.
The argument is a mayor elected by the people of the city will have a citywide mandate to run the show, to wave the big flag for the Liverpool, to punch his, or her weight in the world.
You do not even need to be a councillor to win the job, which is why hair guru Herbert Howe has entered the race for the job.
What will become of the councillors who will still be elected by voters to represent their wards? They will still represent their constituents and have what is described as a scrutinising role, keeping a watchful eye on the decisions and performance of the mayor.
They will not have the opportunity or power to overturn any decisions taken by the mayor. Even now some councillors feel virtually redundant or semi-retired as their power diminishes.
A city mayor will hold the job for four years and it will difficult to remove the person doing the job. Yes, a percentage of people can gather a petition to demand a referendum to scrap the mayoral system, and that process is currently under way in a few cities where some people say they have had enough of being ruled by an elected mayor.
In most cases where there is an elected mayor the first stage was a referendum of the people to decide if they wanted to head down that democratic superhighway.
Liverpool's ruling Labour group, enticed by a £130m goodie bag from the Coalition Government, intend to skip the referendum and head straight to an election for a city mayor on May 3.
That is bound to leave a sour taste among democrats who feel such a dramatic change needs that initial public endorsement.
Democracy yes, but a far different style of democracy to the days when every councillor had to stand up and be counted.
* A special meeting of Liverpool City Council takes place on Tuesday, February 7 to make this historic decision.
