Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR AGENDA (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: Recognition and Flag Policy
Date: July 25, 2023
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a resolution approving an official policy on recognitions and ceremonial flags and separately adopt a motion directing staff on the annual calendar of desired proclamations, including ceremonial flags and flag raising ceremonies.
Background
Historically, the City has provided “thank you” letters to outgoing City Council members or Planning Commissioners. In some cases, the City Council also adopted resolutions of appreciation for exceptional service to the community by an outgoing City Council member. Proclamations are generally requested by an outside group, and if approved for the agenda through the normal process defined by the City Council Rules, the proclamation is read at a City Council meeting to recognize the individual or group. Prior to 2023, over at least the past 15 years, the City has rarely flown any ceremonial flags, so there is no defined process to manage these requests. What all of these have in common is that these processes are not currently defined by a City Council policy.
During Strategic Planning for the fiscal year 2023-24 budget, the City Council requested that the City become more active in recognizing various groups that do good work in the community or represent portions of the community.
At the City Council meeting on June 27, 2022, the City Council provided initial feedback to staff on potential proclamations and requested certain updates to the draft policy. The additions to the proclamation table are bolded and the edits to the policy are shown in redline/strikeout (attached to the resolution).
Analysis/Discussion
The current City Council has expressed a strong desire to recognize groups or causes through proclamations, ceremonial flags and potentially flag raising ceremonies. Therefore, staff reviewed similar policies in other California jurisdictions and tailored these policies into a draft for consideration that would fit Cotati’s size and resources.
Of note is the policy that would provide minimum service time guidelines for City Council members and Planning Commissioners to receive different types of recognition. However, recognition would generally also be subject to the discretion of the City Council through the Mayor using the established process in the City Council Rules.
Attached is a table of proclamations issued over the past 5 years, with new items in bold which were added by the City Council at the June 27, 2023 council meeting. The City Council will need to decide which proclamations to continue this calendar year (2023) and next year if known.
For each proclamation, the City Council must also decide if a flag should be raised, if there will be a flag ceremony, and who the Organizing Lead is.
Motions approving a slate of proclamations should also include an affirmative vote of the City Council on ceremonial flags and flag raising ceremonies, as applicable. This is expected to become an annual process concurrent with the appointment process in January to develop a monthly calendar of proclamations and to reserve requested durations for flags and dates for ceremonies. Additional proclamations without flags or ceremonies, if any, can be added as desired at any time during the year.
Financial Considerations
Prior to hearing this item, City staff have already made upgrades to the City Hall flagpole to allow for a third flag to avoid taking down the California flag to fly a ceremonial flag. Other pending improvements include locking the lanyard on the flagpole to discourage vandalism or theft of flags.
Unless the City Council directs staff to purchase materials/supplies for a certain flag raising ceremony, additional direct costs are limited to the cost of purchasing a flag, which typically runs approximately $100 each. Staff support is expected to take 2-4 staff hours per ceremony, or approximately 24-48 staff hours per year if there are 12 ceremonies each year.
Environmental Issues
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378.
Attachments:
Calendar of Proclamations (PDF)