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Consider Directing Staff to Draft an Ordinance Amending the Sunshine Ordinance to Move to a Hearing Officer Model to Hear Sunshine Ordinance Complaints. (Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft and Councilmember Jensen) [Not heard on October 17, November 7, 21, December 5, 19, 2023 or January 2, 2024]
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COUNCIL REFERRAL FORM
The Council can take any of the following actions:
1) Take no action.
2) Refer the matter to staff to schedule as a future City Council agenda item. Concurrence that staff time will be devoted to the item does not signify approval.
3) Take dispositive action only on time sensitive legislative matters if sufficiently noticed such that the public and Council have been provided sufficient information by the published agenda, and no formal published notice of a public hearing is required.
Name of Councilmember(s) requesting referral: Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft and Councilmember Jensen
Date of submission to City Clerk (must be submitted before 5:00 p.m. on the Monday two weeks before the Council meeting requested): 10/2/2023
Council Meeting date: 10/17/2023
Brief description of the subject to be printed on the agenda, sufficient to inform the City Council and public of the nature of the referral:
To increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and impartiality of Open Government Commission (OGC) hearings and decisions, consider directing staff to draft an ordinance amending the Sunshine Ordinance to use a hearing officer, rather than OGC members, to hear complaints.
The Sunshine Ordinance is modeled after the Brown Act and the Public Records Act. Sunshine Ordinance complaints have recently become increasingly complex and Open Government Commissioners are not trained in legal analysis and applying case law to the complaints they hear. This has led to OGC hearings that are excessively time-consuming and confusing.
Additionally, litigating open meetings and public records disputes is typically a judicial function, i.e., handled by a judge, rather than a jur...
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