The Mayor of Monterey is an elected member of the Monterey City Council and acts as the Chief Executive Officer of the City Government of Monterey, California. Since the year 1925, Monterey operates through a form of the Council-Manager Government, where the Mayor represents the city but only gets a single vote on the city council. The City Manager, a city government official appointed by the council, runs the daily affairs of the city's managerial tasks.
During the Spanish period and the Mexican period of Monterey, the person who ran this area was known as the Alcalde of Monterey. The duties of an Alcalde were markedly different than that of a modern Mayor; the Alcalde served as Monterey's mayor, magistrate, and commander of the local militia and police forces, in addition to managing sanitation, schools, and coordinating with Customs officials. The first Ayuntamiento was established in 1820, with Téodose Flores serving as the first Alcalde. Alcaldes were elected annually, without the right to reelection for two or three years, by the Ayuntamiento. In 1838, with the Mexican central government changing its structure, the Governor accepted the disbandment of the Ayuntamiento and the Alcalde, and the duties of Alcalde were absorbed by a Juez de Paz (English: Justice of the Peace). Alcaldes were reinstated in 1844. The Alcalde carried their authority from the Baston de Mando, a staff or stick which bore the symbol of the Alcalde, and without the Bastion, they held no power.
The first American Alcalde of Monterey was Walter Colton, at which point term limits were changed. The first Mayor of Monterey was Philip A. Roach, who had been serving as Alcalde when the Ayuntamiento was re-incorporated in 1850. From 1853, the town was unincorporated, the office was abolished and their duties were absorbed by the President of the Board of Trustees. For a decade following 1869, all civic institutions in the town were abolished. The town was re-incorporated in 1890 with another Board of Trustees. In 1911, the position of Mayor of Monterey was reestablished with the election of the "first" Mayor of Monterey, Carmel Martin, in 1911. At some point, the term limits were made every 2 years. In the 1925 Charter of Monterey, the language stated that the Mayor would assume office on the Monday after the election.
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President of the Board of Trustees
Civic abolishment (1869–1876)
Following a failed attempt to reincorporate Monterey as a city, the decade following 1869 saw no form of government institutions whatsoever.
In May 1869, the Golden spike was hammered in Utah, connecting California to the East by train for the first time.