No, Claude DaCorsi said with a laugh, he did not crave the job or knock down his council peers to get it.

Indeed, the post of deputy mayor fell to him Monday night by unanimous consent of his peers because, with the end-of-the-year departure of the previous deputy mayor, Bill Peloza, coming up, DaCorsi’s soon to be the longest serving member on the Auburn City Council.

Peloza decided not to run for re-election.

“I don’t know much of anything related to this, other than it’s a position that is a next level for service,” DaCorsi conceded after Monday’s council meeting. “I know it requires a lot of intense preparation, and a lot of work related to being a liaison from the council to the mayor.”

In simplest terms, DaCorsi explained, the deputy mayor fills in for the mayor when needed.

But when 2020 rolls around, there’ll be more to the job than just filling in.

“We’ve had a very good, long-serving council, and now we have three new council members coming in with the new year, and part of the role of the deputy mayor is to train council members,” DaCorsi said.

DaCorsi said city staff has assembled a top-notch program to help the newbies hit the ground running, to learn how the process works, to figure out how issues get to the council, but it’s still the deputy mayor’s responsibility to bring the fresh folk into the fold.

That includes shepherding them through the often byzantine budget process.

“In one’s first year on the council, you’re learning the process, but you’re also in the heat of the battle while you’re learning it,” DaCorsi said.

DaCorsi, now in his seventh year as a council member, said he’s in a good place, “with a renewed exuberance,” to pitch into the work that’s ahead.