Mayor or No Mayor?

[deepfriedcupcake]

We have elections here in Sheffield on Thursday on whether we want to be able to elect a mayor or not.

I haven't a clue on whether this would make any difference to local politics / what happens round the city. Does anyone have any opinions / ideas?

I'd like to use my vote but don't really know much about it. I do know however that I get fed up of egos taking over from local issues, would this be inevitable, as the news tends to focus on for the London elections?

One of the arguments for is that a mayor puts a face to a city rather than it being some anonymous 'leader of the council' that you've never heard and couldn't pick out of a line-up. They become a focal point for people to refer to and lobby concerns and maybe that puts them more in the hot seat to actually get something done? Mayors tend to campaign on personality as well as policies, you're right, but there you'd have to trust the people of Sheffield to see through the flim-flam and decide whether they'd done a good job or not via the ballot box.