DATE:
June 11, 2024
CATEGORY:
Consent
DEPT.:
City Manager
TITLE: Council Policy A-16 Positions on Ballot
Measures and Legislative Advocacy
RECOMMENDATION
Adopt a Resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View Amending City Council Policy A-16, Positions on Ballot Measures and Legislative Advocacy, to be read in title only, further reading waived (Attachment 1 to the Council report).
BACKGROUND
Council Policy A-16, Positions on Ballot Measures and Legislative Advocacy (Policy A-16), governs positions on ballot measures and s tate and f ederal legislative advocacy. P olicy A-16 provides guidance and criteria for how the City Council considers taking formal actions in support of or opposition to ballot measures and policies under consideration by state and/or federal policy - making entities. In general, the Policy limits Council action to issues that are within the City’s jurisdiction subject matter and/or that would directly impact the City’s finances, responsibilities, legal authority, or operations.
At the April 25, 2024 Council Policy and Procedures Committee (CPPC) meeting, t he CPPC considered and discussed proposed language to modify Council Policy A -16 to reflect the City’s Council’s current practice regarding the guiding principles for considering actions of support of or opposition to s tate or f ederal legislation or taking positions on matters of foreign policy or international affairs (Attachment 2 to the Council report).
ANALYSIS
The CPPC accepted staff’s recommendation to include clarifying language throughout the Policy that states that Policy positions taken are cons istent with the City’s adopted State and Federal Legislative Platform and revising the title of Council Policy A-16 to “Positions on Ballot Measures and Federal and State Policy.”
The CPPC also recommended removing G uiding Principle 2.a.i.(c) —Is intended to protect or increase local control—to reflect the action taken by the City Council when it removed references
Council Policy A-16 Positions on Ballot Measures and Legislative Advocacy June 11, 2024
to local control when it adopted the 2024 State and Federal Legislative Platform on February 27, 2024.
The CPPC declined to include in Policy A -16 proposed language that would reflect Council’s current practice of not taking formal positions on foreign policy and international affairs matters that fall outside of the City’s jurisdiction.
The recommended updates to Council Policy A-16 are included as a clean version as Exhibit A to Attachment 1 and as a redlined version in Attachment 3 to this Council report.
FISCAL IMPACT—There is no fiscal impact associated with this recommendation.
ALTERNATIVES
1. Decline to amend City Council Policy A-16.
2. Provide other direction on updates to City Council Policy A-16.
PUBLIC NOTICING—Agenda posting.
Prepared by:
Christina Gilmore
Assistant to the City Manager/
Intergovernmental Relations Manager
Approved by:
Audrey Seymour Ramberg
Assistant City Manager
CG/4/CAM
608-06-11-24CR
204198
Attachments: 1. Resolution with Exhibit A (Council Policy A-16 (clean))
2. Council Policy and Procedures Committee Agenda Packet—April 25, 2024
3. Existing Council Policy A-16 (redlined)