Title
Recommendation to Consider Providing Direction to Staff to Prepare Charter Amendment Ballot Measure(s) and Potentially Determine the Election Dates when the Measure(s) will be on the Ballot. (City Attorney/City Clerk)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Based on City Council (Council) direction from previous meetings, potential City of Alameda Charter (Charter) amendment ballot measures are returning to the Council. Tonight, the Council may provide direction to staff about which measure(s) should go to the voters. Providing direction on the election dates when the measures should go to the voters may be addressed by the Council at the meeting tonight or at the June 16, 2020 regular meeting.
BACKGROUND
A Charter Review Subcommittee composed of Vice Mayor Knox White and Councilmember Daysog was formed to address potential Charter amendments. Most recently, the Council discussed potential Charter amendments on May 5, 6, and 7, 2020. The staff reports are attached as Exhibits 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
At the May 5 meeting, the City Council agreed to consider measures addressing Council pay (without including health benefits), the City Prosecutor, and other “cleanup” language.
On May 6, the Council expressed support for having Section 7-3 on the November 2020 ballot and directed staff to return with measure language in July that includes the Mayor and references State law.
On May 7, the Council approved Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft and Councilmember Oddie serving on a Subcommittee to address a potential measure regarding Article 26 (1973 Measure A).
DISCUSSION
The City Council is able to propose Charter amendments, but Charter amendments are required to be approved by the voters. At the May meetings, Council narrowed the number of Charter amendments to be addressed at this time.
Potential Items:
The 5 items to be addressed and the current Charter language for each are as follows:
A. Cleanup language: Council raised two issues clarifying absences and gender neutral language and directed staff to return with additional suggestions. The potential Charter Sections to consider amending are:
a. Sec. 2-9. If any elected or Council-appointed officer of the City of Alameda (City) who shall remove from the city or absent himself or herself therefrom for more than thirty days consecutively without the permission of the Council, or shall fail to qualify by taking the oath of office within fifteen days from the time his or her certificate of election or appointment is mailed or delivered to him or her, or shall resign, or be convicted of a felony, or be adjudged insane, his or her office shall be vacant.
b. Gender neutral language:
Sec. 2-15. All references to Councilman herein shall hereby be changed to Councilmember.
Sec. 2-16. All references to “his” shall be changed to “his or her” and all references to “him” shall be changed to “him or her” and all references to “himself” shall be changed to “himself or herself”.
c. Sec. 22-7. Traveling expenses shall not exceed actual cost of transportation, plus a reasonable per diem allowance, the latter to be fixed annually by the Council uniformly for all officers and employees. Traveling expenses, except for routine duties, shall be allowed only if authorized by the Council.
d. Sec. 22-8. All public offices, except where otherwise provided by law, shall be open for business every day, except holidays, from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., subject to modification by Council.
Staff can also continue to identify other cleanup language to include in a measure.
B. City Prosecutor: At the May 5 meeting, Councilmembers were invited to submit language and work with the City Attorney on a City Prosecutor measure. The City Attorney’s office received questions about how any prosecutorial function would be handled if the potential defendant or victim is a Councilmember or a Councilmembers’ family member. Consistent with well-established prosecutorial ethical principles and longstanding practice by other California City Attorneys’ Offices, given that the City Attorney reports directly to the Council, the City Attorney’s Office would be required to recuse from the matter and refer the matter to the District Attorney’s Office for handling. This practice is already in place, given that existing City Charter Section 8-2 already requires the City Attorney to prosecute violations of local law, and that any proposed change only relates to violations of state laws.
Sec. 8-2. The City Attorney shall prosecute all violations of the ordinances of the City. He shall, subject to the general direction of the Council, board or elective officer having jurisdiction of the matter, prosecute and defend for the City, and all boards, officers and employees in their official capacity all proceedings before judicial and quasi-judicial tribunals. He shall not compromise, settle or dismiss any action for or against the City without permission of the Council. He shall not commence any action without permission of the Council or written instruction of the City Manager. He shall be the legal advisor of and attorney and counsel for the City and for all officers and boards thereof, in all matters relating to their official duties, and whenever requested in writing by any of them, he shall give his or her legal advice in writing.
C. Council pay: An amendment to Council compensation proposes to set the maximum salary to 30% of the median Bay Area salary. Pursuant to Section 22-9, the increase would not be effective until January 1, 2023. Potential Charter Sections implicated are:
Sec. 2-1.1. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Charter to the contrary, the matters contained in this Section shall be controlling as to the office of the Mayor. Commencing April 20, 1971, and thereafter, the Mayor shall be an elective officer of the City, and shall hold office for a term of four years and until his or her successor is elected or appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed from office pursuant to Article XX of this Charter or otherwise. The method of nomination and election of the Mayor shall be as provided in this Charter for the nomination and election of other elective officers of the City. The office of Mayor shall be a separate office and be arranged on a ballot in a separate column and shall be first in order of arrangement. Eligibility for office of Mayor shall consist of the qualifications set forth in this Charter for other elective officers. The provisions of this Charter which provide for the manner of selecting a candidate to fill office in the event of a tie vote shall apply to the office of Mayor. A vacancy in the office of Mayor shall be filled in the manner set forth in Section 2-7 of this Charter. The Mayor shall receive a monthly compensation of Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00), payable at the time and in the manner as fixed by the Council, and shall be in addition to that provided in Sections 2-4 and 6-4. The intent of this section is hereby declared to be only to make the Mayor an elective officer of the City and to provide the compensation therefor, as set forth herein. Except to the extent they are inconsistent with the provisions of this section, other provisions of this Charter relating to the Mayor shall apply to the Mayor provided for by this section.
Sec. 2-4. The salary attached to the following offices shall be fixed by the Council: Auditor, Treasurer, City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk. Each Councilmember shall receive $50.00 for each meeting of the Council which he shall attend; provided, that no Councilmember shall receive such fees for more than two meetings in any one calendar month.
Sec. 22-9. The compensation of elective officers of the City shall not be increased or decreased during their respective terms of office. This section shall not prohibit the increase or decrease of compensation of assistants or deputies.
D. Section 7-3: On May 6, the Council provided direction to draft language, which would clarify the Mayor’s inclusion and references State law. The City Attorney’s office has begun drafting language. Existing Charter Sections 7-3 reads as follows:
Sec. 7-3. Neither the Council nor any of the members thereof shall interfere with the execution by the City Manager of his or her powers and duties. Except for purposes of inquiry, the Council and its members shall deal with that portion of the administrative service for which the City Manager is responsible solely through him or her. An attempt by a Councilmember to influence the City Manager in the making of any appointment or the purchase of any materials or supplies shall subject such Councilmember to removal from office for malfeasance.
E. Article 26: Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft and Councilmember Oddie worked with staff to address the scope of changes to Article 26. The proposal is also being presented at the meeting tonight.
Currently Article 26 reads as follows:
Multiple Dwelling Units
Sec. 26-1. There shall be no multiple dwelling units built in the City of Alameda.
Sec. 26-2. Exception being the Alameda Housing Authority replacement of existing low cost housing units and the proposed Senior Citizens low cost housing complex, pursuant to Article XXV of the Charter of the City of Alameda.
Sec. 26-3. The maximum density for any residential development within the City of Alameda shall be one housing unit per 2,000 square feet of land. This limitation shall not apply to the repair or replacement of existing residential units, whether single-family or multiple-unit, which are damaged or destroyed by fire or other disaster; provided that the total number of residential units on any lot may not be increased. This limitation also shall not apply to replacement units under Section 26-2.
The Council could choose to either combine some items or have each item be a separate ballot measure. In order to place a measure on the ballot, the Charter revision language needs to be drafted and brought back to Council for final approval.
Election Dates and Costs
At prior meetings, the Council expressed interest in first deciding which items should be sent to the voters and addressing timing at a subsequent meeting. Since there are a limited number of election dates, the information on election dates has been included tonight to allow Council to discuss the matter, if desired.
Election Code Section 1415 establishes when Charter proposals can be submitted to the voters. Although there are established election dates in March and November every year, and April of even-numbered years, Section 1415 limits Charter proposals to March or November of even numbered years. Measures regarding compensation are further restricted to November of even numbered years. Therefore, the three potential elections dates to discuss are: November 2020, March 2022 and November 2022. Council compensation is only able to be placed on the ballot in November 2020 or 2022.
The last day to submit measures to the County for the November 2020 election is August 7, 2020. July 21, 2020 is the last regular meeting when Council could adopt a resolution placing the measure(s) on the ballot. The Council could also call a special meeting or add an additional regular meeting at the end of July if additional time is needed to address measures.
Choosing to place a measure on the March 2022 ballot would have additional costs which are outlined in the Financial Impacts section.
ALTERNATIVES
• The City Council could provide direction to have staff return with ballot language for all five items.
• The City Council could provide direction on the timing of the ballot measure(s).
• The City Council could decide there is no interest in proceeding with one or more specific items at this time.
• The City Council could provide direction about any additional items that should be considered.
• The City Council could decide not proceed with any ballot measures.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Since the City will have an election in November 2020 and 2022, the only additional costs of placing the measure(s) on the ballot would be printing, typesetting and translation costs of approximately $15,000 to $30,000 per measure. Placing the measure(s) on the March 2022 ballot could range from $215,000 to $350,000 depending on how many measures the County has on the ballot.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
The City Charter is the policy document governing the City. Any amendments must be approved by the voter.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Discussion of potential measures is not subject to environmental review. Decisions by the City Council to place a measure on the ballot could be subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act to disclose any potential impacts of the action on the environment if the measure is passed by the voters. Any potential impacts of the ballot measure(s) will be addressed when the Council adopts the ballot language.
CLIMATE IMPACTS
Addressing which items to place on the ballot does not have any climate impacts. If Council elects to place measure(s) on the ballot, any climate impacts would be addressed as part of the staff report that returns to Council when the ballot language is considered.
RECOMMENDATION
Provide direction to staff to draft Charter Amendment ballot measure(s). Direction could also be provided about which Election Dates the measures should be placed on the ballot.
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager concurs with the City Clerk’s recommendation.
Respectfully submitted,
Lara Weisiger, City Clerk and Yibin Shen, City Attorney
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Nancy Bronstein, Human Resources Director/Interim Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. May 5, 2020 Staff Report
2. May 6, 2020 Staff Report
3. May 7, 2020 Staff Report
cc: Eric Levitt, City Manager