REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBMITTED TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
SUBMITTED BY: Mike Posey, City Councilmember
Subject:
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City Councilmember Item submitted by Councilmember Posey for the January 22, 2019 City Council meeting - Formation of a Charter Review Commission
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Statement of Issue:
Section 804 of the City Charter states that the City Council shall determine if there is a need to convene a citizen's Charter Review Commission to conduct a review of the City Charter no less than every ten years. On April 20, 2009, the City Council voted to convene a Charter Review Commission comprised of 15 members. It has been nearly ten years since the last Charter Review Commission was convened and the time has come to reconvene the Commission to review the potential update of the City's Charter.
Noted City Charter expert, Dr. Sonenshein, was retained to guide the Commission through the 2009 review process. The Commission meetings were publicly noticed and open to the public for comment. The Commission met for a year. Their final report was presented to the City Council in April 2009, and their Charter recommendations were approved via Resolution No. 2010-41 on June 7, 2010. Once their recommendations were received and approved by the City Council, the Commission was formally dissolved by Council action on June 21, 2010. The Commission primarily recommended language changes to the Charter and technical amendments that amended current election processes and included certain changes to the form of government.
It would be prudent for the City Council to convene a new Charter Review Commission as it has been ten years since the last review and the Commission will take nearly a year to study and present their recommendations to City Council on any proposed changes/updates. The proposed changes to the Charter were ratified by the voters on November 2, 2010 and were filed with the Secretary of State on January 6, 2011.
Recommended Act...
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