P.O. Box 5374
San Jose, CA 95150
www.lwvsjsc.org
January 8, 2021
To: Mayor Liccardo, Vice Mayor Jones, and Councilmembers Jimenez, Peralez, Cohen, Carrasco, Davis, Esparza, Arenas, Foley, and Mahan
cc: San Jose City Clerk
Subject: Charter Review Commission Report and Recommendations; Agenda #3.4 The League of Women Voters of San Jose/Santa Clara supports the Charter Review Commission’s recommendation to move the San Jose mayoral election from gubernatorial to presidential election years beginning in 2024. In addition, we urge you to make it a stand-alone ballot measure for the June 2022 election. The League, firm in the belief that the strength of our democratic government depends on the active participation of everyone, has advocated for over a hundred years to improve voter education and encourage an active electorate. We believe passing this measure will increase voter participation.
Members of the League of Women Voters have endorsed a national campaign entitled Making Democracy Work stating: “The right to vote is a fundamental principle of our democracy. When more Americans can participate in our elections, the outcome better reflects who we are as a country. We work year-round at the state and local level to enact voting reforms that best increase turnout and help new communities participate in the process…” We believe that the transition to presidential cycles supports our goals and principles.
The League of Women Voters of San Jose/Santa Clara has long studied San Jose’s governance structure and electoral process. As League members, we pride ourselves on “doing our homework.” Our members heard presentations from proponents of the change in timing of mayoral elections first in 2018, and continued to closely follow the deliberations of the Charter Review Commission, especially the presentation by Dr. Garrick Percival, a Commission member.
League members reviewed several studies cited by Dr. Percival. The study by Rice/Kinder Institute for Urban Research and its Center for Local Elections in American Politics documents the impact of timing of mayoral elections on turnout. Its California data-set included 1,062 mayoral elections from February 1995 to November 2014. In California cities where mayoral elections coincide with the presidential elections, voter turnout is more than double that of mayoral elections conducted in off-cycle years.
We supported Measure F in 1978 which created district elections coinciding with the gubernatorial election cycle. A factor in our consideration of the proposed change was whether the San Jose mayoral race would be lost in the “noise” of presidential contests. We concluded that this is not a significant concern because of the absence of any peer-reviewed academic research to support the hypothesis. Dr. Percival cited a study authored by Zoltan and Lewis. It concludes that in California, mayoral races have no statistically significant effect on city council races. Based upon these and other studies, we conclude that the opportunity
to raise San Jose’s low turnout rate of 43.4% averaged over the last four mayoral elections is worth any potential minor downside to a change in its timing.
We do not make the request for a stand-alone ballot measure lightly. We note that the cost of a single ballot measure was estimated in excess of $1.6 million dollars in July 2020. It is League policy to oppose ballot measures that contain multiple subjects because it leads to voter confusion and frustration. This is especially the case if a voter supports one of the multiple proposals and not others in the measure. We respectfully suggest that voters should have the right to make this important decision to change a decades-long electoral practice in an easily understandable, single-subject ballot measure.
The League of Women Voters of California commented in 2019 on an election-related bill, “Despite the fact that California is a majority-minority state, voting participation gaps for people of color, low-income and youth mean that critical issues of local and statewide importance are being made by a predominantly older, white and unrepresentative electorate.
Among the League’s core missions is to increase voter participation and ensure that the electorate reflects California’s diversity.” The League of Women Voters of San Jose/Santa Clara affirms that equity statement and asks you to draft a ballot measure, without other subjects, to move the San Jose mayoral election from gubernatorial to presidential election years.
Regards,
Carol Watts, President, League of Women Voters of San Jose/Santa Clara [email protected] - lwvsjsc.org
TO: CITY COUNCIL and SAN JOSE
MAYOR
CC:, CITY MANAGER OFFICE AND
CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION
SUBJECT: SUPPORTING CHARTER
REVIEW RECOMMENDATION OF POLICE
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
FROM: REIMAGINING PUBLIC SAFETY
COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
DATE: OCTOBER 27, 2021
Edited and approved on November 10,
2021
INFORMATION
The purpose of this memorandum is to convey to the council and committee our support for a community oversight committee to be added to the city’s charter through the work of the Charter Review Commission.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For too long, the San Jose Police Department has been allowed to police itself without the benefit of accountability from the community. At this point much of the community believes police are not accountable to anyone, which is destroying trust between the community and the public safety apparatus. We believe that a committee such as the one that is being proposed should not only “advise” but have authority to investigate individual incidents of misconduct, have the power to issue disciplinary measures, and speak meaningfully to the policies and procedures that exist within the current policing structures. We support the charter commission recommending a police commission, which oversees an Inspector General, an Independent Investigations Department, and the Police Chief, as detailed in the Charter Review Commission's Recommendation Memorandum entitled Proposal to create a Police Commission, and to convert the Office of the Internal Affairs to an Independent Investigations Department. We recommend their responsibilities and powers include:
1. Patterns of Practice
2. Use of Force
3. Training
4. Policies and Practices
5. Promotions, demotions, hiring and firing.
6. Investigation function (subpoena power and ability to review unredacted records and review police arbitration)
In order to ensure this committee garners the public’s trust, the community should have direct input on who serves on such a committee, giving special consideration to communities most impacted by police violence. This will avoid government officials, elected and staff, from injecting politics contrary to the public’s interest.
TO: CITY COUNCIL and SAN JOSE MAYOR
CC: CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE
SUBJECT: REINFORCING SUPPORT FOR
CHARTER REVIEW RECOMMENDATION
OF POLICE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
FROM: THE STEERING SUBCOMMITTEE
OF THE REIMAGINING PUBLIC SAFETY
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
DATE: JANUARY 11, 2022
INFORMATION
The purpose of this memorandum is to underscore that the Reimagining Public Safety Advisory Committee (RPSCAC) has voiced its support for the recommendations as submitted by the Charter Review Commission on Police Oversight and Public Safety. The recommendations on police oversight have been thoroughly researched, were approved by charter review commissioners with a near-unanimous vote, and are supported by (RPSCAC). The city council must schedule a study session and do the work necessary to arrive at a ballot measure and put the question to the city’s voters. The RPSCAC should be consulted on fine-tuning the language of the measure and deciding which subject matter and lived experience experts are included in the study session. Please find the recommendation from the RPSCAC on November 10, 2022 attached.