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CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA
REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM
Report: Charter Review – Placement of a Measure or Measures on the Ballot to Amend the City Charter to Modernize the Civil Service System, Update the Charter’s Fund Accounting Provisions, and Provide for Miscellaneous Charter Cleanup; Update on Charter Review Committee Activity
1. Resolution of the Council Authorizing Placing on the Ballot Two Questions of Amending the City Charter Pertaining to the Civil Service System, the Charter’s Fund Accounting Provisions and Miscellaneous Provisions
2. Resolution of the Council Authorizing Placing on the Ballot the Question of Amending the City Charter Pertaining to the Civil Service System, the Charter’s Fund Accounting Provisions and Miscellaneous Provisions
3. Resolution Calling and Giving Notice of the Holding of a Special Municipal Election to be Held on November 3, 2026; and Asking the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to Consolidate the Special Election with the Statewide General Election; and Authorize the City Clerk and her Duly Authorized Officers and Agents to Carry out all Necessary Procedures for Said Election Working with the County of Los Angeles
4. Resolution Calling for Arguments For and Against the Ballot Measures
5. Resolution of Appropriation
COUNCIL ACTION
Item Type: Action Item
Approved for July 21, 2026 calendar
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report follows up the reports of November 4, 2025, March 24, 2026, and April 14, 2026 related to potential amendments to the City Charter. At the conclusion of the April 14, 2026, meeting, the Council deliberated on potential Charter amendments and directed staff to prepare ballot measure language for Charter amendments related to Civil Service and miscellaneous amendments. Since then, the Charter Review Committee has recommended amendments to the Charter’s fund accounting provisions and staff recommend those proposed amendments be included in a proposed ballot measure if the Council is inclined to put the Civil Service and miscellaneous amendments on the November ballot.
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RECOMMENDATION
That the Council, if it is so inclined, adopt a resolution placing Charter amendments on the ballot for November 2026 related to Civil Service, fund accounting provisions and miscellaneous cleanup, and adopt related resolutions to call a special election, asking Los Angeles County to consolidate the special election with statewide general election and calling for arguments for and against the ballot measures. Staff recommends the proposed resolution that submits two separate questions to the voters – one on the Civil Service amendments, and the fund accounting and miscellaneous amendments in the other.
ANALYSIS
Since 2024, the Charter Review Committee (“Committee”) has reviewed the City Charter and reviewed proposed Charter amendments at the direction of the Council.
The Committee has had extensive substantive discussions relating to Council districts, a directly elected Mayor position, Council compensation matters, elected vs. appointed City Clerk and City Treasurer, qualifications of the City Clerk and Treasurer, civil service, council-manager governance, the Charter’s accounting funds, and miscellaneous issues.
The Council received updates on November 4, 2025 (Exhibit 1), March 24, 2026 (Exhibit 2) and April 14 2026 (Exhibit 3). At its April 14, 2026 meeting, the Council directed staff to return with the necessary legislation to place certain matters on the ballot for the November 3, 2026 statewide general election. Those matters are:
Civil Service
Rule of Three Whole Scores: The proposed revision would allow amendments to the Civil Service Rules to permit appointments to be made using the Rule of Three Whole Score system. Under the Rule of Three Whole Scores, candidates are ranked based on their examination scores, and the appointing authority may select from among candidates who fall within the top three distinct score levels (or “whole scores”), rather than being restricted to only the top three ranked applicants.
Length of Probationary Period: This proposed Charter amendment would change the allowable length of the probationary period to a maximum of 18 months, with public safety sworn personnel remaining at 12 months.
Promotional Reallocation: This proposed Charter amendment would allow the appointment of a person with specialized knowledge and experience unique to the reallocated position, provided a vacancy does not exist At-Will Department Heads: This proposed amendment would remove department heads from the classified service, applicable to department heads appointed after the November 3, 2026 election.
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Miscellaneous Cleanup
Location of Council meetings: The Charter currently requires all Council meetings to be held in the Council Chambers absent an emergency. Any Council item requiring deliberation and a Council vote must occur in Chambers. This proposed revision would keep this requirement for the Council’s regular meetings, but allow flexibility for the Council to take actions at special meetings that occur outside of Chambers in the community.
Holding Compensated City Office or City Employment After Council Service: This proposed amendment would confirm the current interpretation of a current provision of the Charter that the prohibition on holding compensated City office or employment within two years of Council service does not apply to the elected positions of Clerk or Treasurer or that of a councilmember appointed to Council in the event of a vacancy.
Remove/replace Obsolete Job Titles and Duties: The proposed amendments would also remove and/or replace obsolete job titles and duties referenced in the Charter.
Additional recommendation of Committee and Staff Regarding Charter Fund Accounting and Other Fiscal Provisions
At its June 4, 2026 and July 2, 2026 meetings, at the direction of Council, the Committee received reports on the Charter’s provisions regarding fund accounting for the City’s general fund and Glendale Water & Power (GWP) funds and unanimously recommended charter amendment language to modernize these provisions. The current Charter language related to the City’s fund accounting is outdated and not compliance with General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) such as those put forth by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).
Fund Structure Compliance with GAAP
The City currently has approximately 78 funds to account for all the various activities and operations that the City has including the General Fund operations, numerous Special Revenue funds, Debt Service funds, Capital Project funds, Internal Service funds, and Enterprise funds. All of these funds have been created to address the operational needs of the City, and to comply with GAAP as well as State and Federal requirements. These separate and distinct funds allow the City to maintain accurate financial records and produce reports that are consistent with GAAP, such as the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and further allow for better planning and budgeting to safeguard public assets. While these funds are not mandated by the Charter, they are necessary to account for the activities of the City and all its operations. 10a4
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The Charter however, identifies ten specific funds to account for activities of the General Fund and the Electric and Water Utilities. They are: general budget fund; general reserve fund; waterworks depreciation fund; electric works depreciation fund; special deposit fund; general service fund; waterworks revenue fund; electric works revenue fund; Glendale Water and Power sinking fund; and Glendale Water and Power surplus fund (Article XI, §§14 - 22). Many of these specific funds are inconsistent with GAAP and require redundant work to comply with the Charter. This creates unnecessary complexity in budgeting and administration. As an example, the Charter requires that the Council set aside from the income of GWP a fund which according to the estimates of the City Manager shall be sufficient to meet the normal depreciation of either waterworks or electric works. This requirement is inconsistent with modern accounting practices.
Modern accounting practices define depreciation as a measurement of the decline in value of an asset over a period of time. It is a formulaic calculation based on the asset's recorded value divided by its useful life. Accordingly, the Charter requirement of setting aside such funds in a depreciation account is outdated. On the other hand, capital planning is a function of the budgetary process and the actual financing of those capital projects is typically performed on “pay-as-you-go” basis or through debt (bond) financing.
Due to frequent changes in accounting principles and practices, which mandate specific accounting requirements, including changes to fund structures, the Charter should be more flexible to comply with these dynamic changes in accounting rules. This flexibility will allow for more efficient and transparent accounting and financial reporting. Staff therefore propose amendments to the Charter that will modernize and streamline the Charter for better accounting and reporting, eliminate the outdated specific fund requirements, and allow the Council to direct the City’s administration to modify, eliminate and consolidate fund structures as needed. Additionally, staff proposes an amendment to allow the transfer from the electric fund to the general fund to be made during the fiscal year for which it is budgeted and not at the end of the fiscal year as the Charter currently requires. The proposed amendment will make no changes to the methodology for calculating the transfer.
Fiscal Administration
Article XI of the Charter provides certain practices that are no longer necessary. As an example, Section 3 requires that the Council provide for petty cash funds by ordinance for payment in cash of expenditures provided for in the budgets that cannot conveniently and economically be paid otherwise. This is an outdated practice, since petty cash payments are limited to small expenditures and are charged against budgeted line items.
Staff recommend eliminating this section to eliminate unnecessary requirements over these types of activities and to make a clarifying modification to Section 6 regarding adoption of the budget.
Lowest Cost Bond Pricing
Article XXVI, Section 4 requires that when issuing bonds, the bonds must be sold only at public sale, i.e. bidding, provided, however, that if no satisfactory bid is received, the 10a5
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council may reject all bids received, and thereafter sell said bonds at a public or private sale. This requirement can extend the time it takes to get bonds to market and adds bureaucratic inefficiencies to the bond issuance process. Staff propose eliminating this requirement of a public sale and allow for an option of a negotiated bond sale (in addition to the option of a competitive sale) to eliminate inefficiencies.
Staff recommend that the Council adopt the Committee’s recommendations regarding fund accounting, fiscal administration, and lowest cost bond pricing. The proposed Charter language, approved by the Committee, is set forth in Exhibit 4 as well as the proposed ballot resolutions.
Additional Discussions of Committee
City Clerk and City Treasurer
At its March 2026 meeting, the Committee approved a motion recommending that the Clerk and Treasurer positions remain as elected positions. At its April 2, 2026, meeting, the Committee voted to recommend Charter amendments regarding compensation of the City Clerk and City Treasurer. First, the Committee unanimously recommended a Charter amendment that would prohibit a reduction in compensation paid to the City Clerk and City Treasurer beginning 30 days before the deadline to file nomination papers through the terms of their respective offices. Second, by a vote of 5 to 3, the Committee recommended a Charter amendment that would impose a three-term limit on service as City Clerk or City Treasurer, either by election or appointment; exempt from such limit a partial term of less than one-half the full term of office; and apply only to terms of office beginning after the election at which such term limits are adopted by the electorate. Thus, such limits would mirror in all respects those applicable to members of the City Council. The Council has not provided direction to include these proposed Charter amendments on the November 2026 ballot. At its June 2026 meeting, the Committee was tied on a motion to propose amendments adding qualifications to the City Treasurer position. The Committee subsequently tabled the discussion. The Committee voted unanimously to recommend no changes to the Charter pertaining to qualifications for the City Clerk position.
Independent Audit Commission
Since April 2026, the Committee has held discussions regarding a Charter-authorized independent audit commission. The Committee has not made final recommendations at this time.
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Timing and Cost Issues
As noted previously, State law mandates that Charter amendments that “alter procedural or substantive protections, rights, benefits or employment status” of local government employees – such as the proposed civil service Charter amendments - must be placed on the ballot of a statewide general election, e.g. November 2026, November 2028. Other Charter amendments may occur at a statewide primary election, which coincides with the City’s general municipal election.
If the Council places Charter measures on the ballot for the November 2026 election, it will have to call a special election to be consolidated with the statewide general election that is run by Los Angeles County. The cost estimate from Los Angeles County to have a consolidated special election in November 2026 for ballot measures is between $465,336,.58 to $476,334.95, depending on the number of pages and the number of the ballot measures take up on the ballot. Staff recommend a 10% contingency on the estimated cost and a $40,000 allocation for informational advertising related to the proposed measure(s). The funds for the consolidation are not appropriated in the City’s current budget for the Clerk’s Office. Thus, staff is requesting an appropriation of $565,000 if Council desires to place the measure(s) on the ballot.
Ballot measure resolutions
While ballot measures proposed by initiative of electors (voters) must contain only a “single subject” or subjects reasonably germane to one another, this rule does not apply to charter amendments proposed by governing bodies. See Hernandez v. County of Los Angeles (2008) 167 Cal.App.4th 12, 22-23. Thus, the Council has the latitude to propose the Charter amendments in one ballot measure or into a couple of distinct measures.
Staff has prepared two resolutions for the Council’s consideration: (i) a resolution that includes one ballot measure for the proposed Civil Service amendments, the fund accounting and fiscal administration amendments and the miscellaneous amendments, or (ii) a resolution that has one ballot measure for the Civil Service amendments and a second ballot measure for the other items. Staff recommend placing two measures on the ballot due to the subject matter distinctions between the Civil Service amendments and the other amendments. However, the Council may choose otherwise. In addition to the resolution(s) placing proposed Charter amendments on the ballot, the Council would be required to adopt a resolution calling for a November 3, 2026 special election and asking the County to consolidate with that election.
If the Council desires to place Charter amendments on the November 2026 ballot, it must do so no later than August 4, 2026
Next Steps
If the Council adopts a resolution calling for the placement of a Charter amendment on the ballot, a resolution calling for arguments for and against the proposed charter amendment, must also be adopted.
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The following procedures will also be implemented:
City Attorney’s Impartial Analysis: Elections Code §9280 provides that whenever city measures are placed on the ballot, the City Attorney, upon direction of the City Council must prepare an impartial analysis of the measures showing the effect of each measure on existing law and how each measure will operate.
Call for Arguments For and Against Proposed Charter Amendments: Pursuant to Section
1.08.060 of the Glendale Municipal Code, 1995, (“GMC”), arguments for and against the proposed Charter amendments must be submitted by specific dates. The GMC requires the Council give preference for writing arguments in the following order:
1. Officers of the City elected by the people.
2. Appointive officers of the City.
3. Bona fide associations of citizens.
4. Individual voters.
Should a majority of the Council choose to sign the arguments in favor of the proposed ballot measures, the City Attorney is prepared to draft such arguments or, in the alternative, the Council may write its own arguments or choose a member to draft the arguments.
Other Pertinent Elections Dates:
A person must request to write arguments at least 85 days prior to election. (August 10, 2026)
The City Council must appoint a person or persons to write arguments at least 75 days prior to election. (August 20, 2026)
Arguments must be submitted to the City Clerk at least 65 days prior to election. (August 30, 2026)
There is a 10-day review period of arguments prior to submitting materials for printing.
STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
The Charter Review Committee is comprised of 12 Glendale residents representing a broad cross-section of the community. The meetings are open to the public and are televised on GTV6.
FISCAL IMPACT
The estimated cost to the City to hold a special election consolidated with the statewide general election is $565,000. This amount was not included in the FY 2026-27 budget.
Thus, if the Council places a measure or measures on the ballot for these Charter amendments, staff request an appropriation as outlined in the following table. 10a8
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Requesting Appropriation
Amount From (Account
String)
To (Account String) Funding Source
$565,000 25300-1010-000 43110-1010-CCD-
1500-P0000
General Fund
Department Cost Center Program
City Clerk Elections
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA/NEPA)
This activity involves organizational and administrative activities of the government related to election procedures and eligibility requirements, and such internal procedural and eligibility changes have no potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. As such, this action is not a “project” subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) 14 Cal. Code Regs § 15378.
CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE
This item is exempt from campaign disclosure requirements.
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATION
1. Council may choose to adopt the resolution placing one measure on the ballot.
2. Council may choose not to place any measures on the ballot.
ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
Submitted by:
Michael J. Garcia, City Attorney
Prepared by:
Michael J. Garcia, City Attorney
Approved by:
Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager
EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
1. Staff Report on Update on Activities of Charter Review Committee, November 4, 2025
2. Staff Report on Update on Activities of Charter Review Committee, March 24, 2026
3. Staff Report on Update on Activities of Charter Review Committee, April 14, 2026
4. Proposed Charter Language Pertaining to Fund Accounting, Fiscal Administration, and Limitations on Bond Issuance