Sarasota Livin'

Good question.
First, the ballot measures should be separated: adding two commissioners and an elected mayor are two very different things.
I see some flaws in the logic of those most loudly advancing the elected mayor (EM) case. They say that it will make government stronger and they refer to our federal system and the fact that we have an elected president as evidence that an EM would be a better solution. Really? Was this argument used when Bush was in office? Was that a good outcome?
I want to know what adding an additional politician to the ranks will really do. If, as proponents say, the EM has much more power---that pendulum swings both ways. Is it that pro-EM people figure that they can more easily control the whole commission if they can get one person elected to "control" the others?
http://www.citymayors.com/government/council_managers.html this website shows that, contrary to comments made by pro-EM ads, that Council-Manager system not only works, but is gaining favor. Beware letting big-money push for a change and giving to much power to one instead of all.