West Midlands Police Commissioner wants more time in the role
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson is calling to have his tenure extended by two years and next year's elections cancelled.
With the West Midlands planning to form a combined authority, a possible elected mayor would take over the commissioners' powers making the position obsolete.
With that in mind, Mr Jamieson is calling for another two years to be added to his term to help the transition to the mayor, expected in 2018.
PCC elections are to take place next year.
He said: "In legalistic and parliamentary terms, there are governance issues regarding the position of PCCs under a mayor-led combined authority.
"As it currently stands, if an election for a PCC took place in May 2016 that person would have a mandate for four years which would be very difficult to overturn. Thereby, the mayor and PCC election would be out of sync and hard to get back in line. Our current understanding is that there is no mechanism that addresses this eventuality."
Mr Jamieson has ruled himself out of standing to become West Midlands metro mayor - who could also be in charge of the fire service.
He said: "A mayor with responsibility for the governance of the police, and possibly fire service, is the ideal model to share good practice and promote joint working between public bodies.
Government cuts to police force budgets have been made with such speed that some forces are losing both officers and capacity.
"This is a particular issue in this region, as West Midlands Police have often become coordinator by default for many areas, due to the lack of effective joined up structures that cover the whole conurbation.
"This means that delivering specialist support to tackle the increasing demand placed on the force is going to be even more difficult in the future.
"Having an accountable mayoral figure has additional potential to ensure a proper, considered response to this challenge. Addressing the barriers that have led many organisations to work in silos, a Mayor could make smart use of managerial and other expertise that would enable greater coordination of services at the point of delivery."
A leaked document revealed council leaders discussed plans for a new mayor that included tax raising powers and proposals to nationalise the M6 Toll.