A PROUD dog owner spends £100,000 a year for her adorable dog to be the mayor of an entire town.
Mayor Max III is the third golden retriever to take the top job in the unconventional Californian town since 2012 – but it’s cost his owners a whopping amount of cash to keep their pooches in power.
Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller III is better known as the Mayor of Idylliwild
Mayor Max III with his owner and Chief of Staff Phyllis Mueller, 72
Mayor Max III with his deputy mayors Meadow, Mitzi and Mikey
On top of being Max III’s parents, Phyllis Mueller and Glenn Warren are his chiefs of staff and couldn’t be prouder of him for following in the footsteps of the two previous dog mayors – Max I and Max II.
The trio are far from your average politicians and traded in debates and law making for tail wagging and toy playing.
But the top position doesn’t come cheap as a mayor needs money to make his town better – and Max III has certainly spent a lot of it.
Calendars costing more than £40,000 and ties coming in at £16,000 are two big outgoings in his yearly budget, slowly making his mayoral term an economic nightmare.
And over the last 11 years, Phyllis has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to guarantee her golden retrievers stay in power.
Phyllis and Glenn’s first dog Max was elected in 2012 when the town’s animal rescue charity came up with the idea to give the area a four-legged mayor while the role was unoccupied.
A huge fundraiser was organised and locals put forward their pets for election and voted on who deserved the coveted role.
The rules were simple – everyone could vote as many times as they want, but they would have to donate a dollar to have their voices heard.
Phyllis, 72, told The Sun: “They decided to have an election to decide Idyllwild’s first mayor but no human could run.
“You had to be a full time local and could run your dog or your cat.
“You could vote as many times as you wanted and for as many candidates as you wanted because all the proceeds went to charity.”
At the time of the election Phyllis, Glenn and Max I had just moved to the town – but knew they had to enter as soon as they saw the ads for the election.
Phyllis said: “The minute I heard about it I had this instant realisation that ‘oh my God there’s an opportunity to be a mayor of a town’.
“So we campaigned hard around town and visited as many people as we could and had huge tarpaulin made that said ‘vote for Mayor Max’.
“We had two cars that both were white so we wrapped them in red white and blue like a campaign politician would normally do.
“We sent letters to everyone in town, one was a flyer and the other a manifesto basically telling people why we wanted to be mayor.”
In his message to the town, Max I made clear he wanted to sort out littering in the town, make people happy and invest in more peanut butter.
Phyllis stuck up big banners and made a press release to ensure she won the election for her dog.
On voting day, she wrote two $10,000 cheques and popped them in the ballot box in front of Max’s name to make sure her pup won the leadership race.
When it came to the results, the charity said it raised $31,000 from the 14 pets who were up for the vote.
Max I romped to victory thanked to Phyllis’ mega cheques and the town’s generosity.
“I think it was meant to be, we came to win and I said ‘we’re going to win this election’ and we did,” she said.
But Mayor Max tragically died just nine months later, leaving Mayor Max II to be appointed to the town’s top honour.
Mayor Max II came in with a bark and hired himself two fellow golden retriever deputies – Mitzi and Mikey.
The first term in office was so successful that when a re-election was proposed by the animal charity, the town declared their loyalty to the fluffy pooch.
Phyllis said: “After his first term a re-election was called but the town revolted and said ‘no, Mayor Max for life’.”
Max II passed away 18 months ago after living a fulfilling life for a big dog from a small town – giving the reigns over to Max III who runs the place today.
Mayor Max III as a young puppy before his expensive but adorable reign as mayor started
The original doggy mayor Max who won the election campaign back in 2012
Max II took over the role of mayor after Max I died 9 months into his role and kept it for almost a decade
Mayor Max has always been the star of Idyllwild but it comes at a big price as the spoilt pooch can cost up to $120,000 a year to keep in office
Despite having two previous pooches to follow in their paw prints, Max III is a generous mayor and struggles to contain his lavish lifestyle – even if it means spending money wildly outside of his yearly budget set by his chiefs of staff.
“My husband and I fund the whole mayor’s office ourselves and it costs about $100,000 a year, maybe a little more now because of inflation and gas prices,” Phyllis said.
“In fact, I think it might’ve been $120,000 the past few years now.”
Phyllis and Glenn are animal rights activists and philanthropists and believe in positivity and happiness for everyone around them.
They believe it’s why they have kept the mayor in the family for all these years and why their dogs are so happy to wear their work outfit and head off for a walk around the neighbourhood.
But they admitted the spending is getting out of hand.
Phyliss said: “It is getting to be challenging to do that as it’s more than my personal income.
“I am thinking of maybe trying to add some merchandise for sale.
“We make at most $100 from donations a month and a tiny commission off the rescue centre who sell t-shirts.
“But Max has never been about making money for me – it’s more of a generous gift to the community.”
It isn’t just the local community that benefit out of the charitable family as they are known across the globe.
More than 10,000 people from 30 different countries have signed up to receive a 2024 calendar from Mayor Max III – full of pictures of the dog hard at work.
“We give away lots of calendars a year with Max on it, totally for free so we pay for postage and send them out to over 33 countries but that costs $57,500,” Phyllis said.
“I used to buy just the calendars for $18,000 but it’s now $31,000 plus tax and then postage has basically doubled since Covid.
“The thing is there’s no cash flow for a K9 mayor in a non-incorporated town like ours.”
The other huge expense comes from the ties they give out to children and other dogs who visit Max III.
When he’s hard at work Max can always be seen sporting a mini tie like a proper politician and sometimes even a hat or a harness with his name on it.
Every year Phyllis buys up to 20,000 ties to hand out to people.
Phyllis appoints them as a fellow deputy to Max and makes it clear the tie is a sign of solidarity with the dog and the Idyllwild clan.
But this sets them back a staggering $20,000 as they try to keep up with the ever-growing demand.
And the cost of travel is huge for the mayor.
Getting to and from the hundreds of events Max III does can cost between $24,500 up to $30,000 on fuel costs per year.
Just like any mayor, Max is in charge of the Christmas lights switch on, cutting ribbons, announcing openings of stores and having private business meetings with clients.
But Idyllwild’s good boy also goes above and beyond a mayor’s typical duties.
He pays his respects at memorial services, keeps the elderly company on trips to retirement homes, and even goes to weddings – including the odd hen or stag do where he’s the main attraction in his special tie.
Phyllis said the town sometimes needs the pick-me-up that only dogs can bring.
She continued: “The dogs are very good public ambassadors, they raise the spirits and lift the people because they’re so friendly and they are just fun and make people happy.
“They’re very good at bringing a crowd too, so they’ll promote an event and say they’re going and it generates more money for charity and a bigger buzz around the place.”
Max I and Max II would also go and visit hospitals and make the sick children smile as they give him a stroke and a cuddle.
Since 2012, Phyllis thinks they’ve visited more than a million people and 25,000 dogs, cats, birds, horses and even donkeys.
Despite the rising costs, Phyllis and her husband said the cash they’re investing into Mayor Max makes a huge different to the town.
The pair said: “They totally know they’re mayors and they love going to work when I tell them, they freak out and jump around and they just absolutely love it.
“They get attention they get pet, they get their pictures taken they get treats and they love it it’s a dream job.”
Max has had his own personal trucks designed since the original election that drive him around California
Phyllis put up banners, sent out letters and wrapped her car for the original mayoral campaign
Mayor Max III gives out ties to children who visit him but they come at an expensive price
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