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OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY/CITY PROSECUTOR
CIVIL DIVISION
MEMORANDUM
June 15, 2026
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
FROM: Michele Beal Bagneris, City Attorney / City Prosecutor Dion O'Connell, Assistant City Attorney/ Q,
SUBJECT: UPDATE REGARDING COMMISSIONER TERM LIMITS
ORDINANCE (AGENDA ITEM #13)
CHRONOLOGY
On December 16, 2024, the City Council directed the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance regarding the above-entitled subject and referred the matter to the Legislative Policy Committee ("Committee") for review and input. During meetings held on March 5,2025,July 1,2025, and October 7, 2025, the Committee considered and provided recommendations on a draft ordinance. At its meeting held on February 9, 2026, City Council directed staff to return to City Council with an ordinance requiring that term limits both for advisory boards, commissions, and committees created by Council ("Article III Commissions"), and for boards of nonprofit corporations - Pasadena Community Access Corporation ("PCAC"), Pasadena Center Operating Company ("PCOC"), and Rose Bowl Operating Company ("RBOC"), collectively, "Article IV Boards" - would be for no more than twelve consecutive years or three consecutive four- year terms. Article III Commissions, PCAC, and PCOC boards currently have limits of two three-year terms. RBOC currently has a limit of two four-year terms. Council also directed that Commission/Board members vacate their seats within 180 days of the expiration of their term. Term limits would not apply to members of parking commissions, the City Manager (or representative). City Council members on Article IV Boards, members nominated by outside entities, and the commercial property member of the PCOC Board. Finally, all Commission/Board Members would be required to undertake training on various governance subjects.
The draft ordinance that included the terms recited above was placed on the May 1 1, 2026, City Council agenda. At that meeting, City Council directed the City Attorney to return on May 18, 2026, with an ordinance that limits Article III Commission members to two four-year terms and Article IV Board members to three four-year terms. All other 06/15/2026
ITEM 13
100 North Garfield Avenue, Room N210 • P.O. Box 7115 • Pasadena, CA 91109-7215 (626) 744-4141 • Fax (626) 744-4190
COMMISSIONER TERM LIMITS AND
TRAFNING ORDINANCE UPDATE
June 15, 2026
provisions would be as previously directed. The item was pulled from the agenda on May 18 due to time constraints. The item was placed on City Council's June 8, 2026, agenda.
On June 8, 2026, the item was continued to June 15, 2026, to allow for consideration of concerns raised by City Council Analyst Jana Stewart's memo dated May 17, 2026.
ADDRESSING CITY COUNCIL ANALYST CONCERNS
For roughly two decades, Ms. Stewart has coordinated with City Council to administer the appointment of individuals to Article III Commissions and Article IV Boards while she kept track of the eligibility of those individuals to those seats. After several meetings with Ms. Stewart, City Manager staff and City Attorney staff, three aspects of the proposed changes became apparent: transitioning from three-year terms to four-year terms would add an extra layer of complexity to establishing enforceable term limits when taking into consideration past staggered terms served by those individuals; questions remained as to the effect on individuals who were near the total-year limit as the transition period begins July 1, 2026; and, analyze the number of individuals who would be required to vacate their seats by December 31, 2026, if they had already accumulated eight years of service on a particular Commission or Board. 1) Calculating the number of seats that must be vacated by December 31 ,2026.
The most immediate task was to tally the number of individuals who would be required to vacate their seats by December 31, 2026, under several different iterations of the proposed ordinance:
Alternative A (reflected on 5/18, 6/8 & 6/15 agendas), Art. Ill Commissions two 4-yr terms / Art IV Boards three 4-yr terms: must vacate 31-36 seats by 12/31/26 Alternative B, Art. Ill two 4yr terms / Art. IV two 4yr terms: must vacate 36-41 seats by 12/31/26 Alternative C, Art. Ill three 4yr terms / Art. IV three 4yr terms: must vacate 3-7 seats by 12/31/26 Alternative D, Art. Ill three Syr terms / Art. IV three 4yr terms: must vacate 4-9 seats by 12/31/26 Alternative E, Art. Ill three Syr terms / PCAC/PCOC three Syr terms; RBOC three 4yr terms:
must vacate 5-10 seats by 12/31/26
2) Minimizing the disruption caused by changing term lengths.
As previously stated. Article III Commissions, PCAC, and PCOC boards currently have limits of two three-year terms. RBOC currently has a limit of two four-year terms. As explained by Ms. Stewart, keeping the length of terms the same as currently provided in the Pasadena Municipal Code would greatly assist in her determination of each Commission/Board member's eligibility for their particular seats, when counting their XF7UNN4DOD36UH
COMMISSIONER TERM LIMITS AND
TRAINING ORDINANCE UPDATE
June 15, 2026
the Pasadena Municipal Code would greatly assist in her determination of each Commission/Board member's eligibility for their particular seats, when counting their previous terms of service. In furthering the goals of cycling in new individuals to these seats while avoiding the vacation of over thirty seats by December 31, 2026, and while facilitating Ms. Stewart's administration of these appointments, it would appear Alternative E can best accomplish those goals.
3) Correcting ambiguity regarding those termed out during transition period.
Those individuals who will not have reached the maximum three terms by June 30, 2026, will complete their current terms, even though they will have exceeded nine years (or twelve years for RBOC) of service at the expiration of their term.
SUGGESTED ORDINANCE LANGUAGE
This Office's last direction from City Council to return with a new ordinance was given May 11, 2026. That ordinance (Alternative A on the chart above) is before Council on June 15, 2026. However, if City Council prefers to amend the current ordinance to reflect one of the alternate tenn lengths and numbers listed in the chart above, this Office will be prepared to provide such an ordinance. For example, if City Council were to prefer Alternative E, the salient amended parts of the ordinance would read:
"2.45.015 - Leneth of terms.
A. Unless otherwise provided in a chapter in this Article III governing a specific board, commission or committee ("Advisory Body"), members of Advisory Bodies shall be appointed for a term of 3 years and shall serve no more than 3 consecutive full terms on the same Advisory Body. A term of less than 1 year is not considered a full term...
B, ^
C. If, as of June 30, 2026, an Advisory Body member will have already served at least 9 consecutive years in a particular seat, that member shall vacate that seat on or before December 31, 2026. All other Advisory Board members will be eligible to serve until the conclusion of their current term, at which time the provisions within subsections A and B shall apply." Similar language would be inserted into the sections that govern the PCAC, PCOC, and RBOC (with a four-year term for RBOC). This version of the ordinance will be available for substitution should City Council prefer to adopt this version. ' Any substantive change other than as reflected in the chart likely would be treated as a direction to return June 22, 2026, with an ordinance for first reading.
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