City of Santa Clara
Agenda Report
1500 Warburton Avenue
Santa Clara, CA 95050
santaclaraca.gov
@SantaClaraCity
23-1294 Agenda Date: 11/7/2023
REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Presentation of the Recommendations from the 2023 Charter Review Committee Related to the Positions of Chief of Police and City Clerk
COUNCIL PILLAR
Enhance Community Engagement and Transparency
BACKGROUND
On June 6, 2023, the City Council approved the creation of a 7-member Charter Review Committee ("Committee") for the purposes of studying whether to propose amendments to the City Charter that would change the positions of Chief of Police and City Clerk from elected to appointed positions. The Council also directed that if the Committee recommended that the position(s) remain elected, the Committee should make a recommendation as to whether any changes are desired to the qualifications for the elected positions. Additionally, if the Committee recommended a change to appointed positions, the Council requested that the Committee provide a recommendation as to whether the positions should be appointed by the City Council or the City Manager. Lastly, the Council requested that the Committee conduct robust community engagement as part of their charge.
On July 18, 2023, the City Council appointed the members of the Committee and approved a budget amendment to provide funding in support the work of the Committee.
The Committee has selected the Chair of the Committee, Jeff Houston, to provide the Council with an overview of the Committee’s work effort, a summary of community input received and a set of recommendations for the Council’s consideration.
DISCUSSION
The Committee held a total of five meetings during the months of August 2023 through October 2023.
The meetings were held in a hybrid format with both City Hall Council Chambers and the Central Park library used to host the physical meetings.
The Committee was provided with historical information related to prior ballot measures, information related to the City Charter provisions of the two positions as well as responses to e-comments and questions received by staff from the public. In addition, the Committee heard presentations from the incumbent Santa Clara Chief of Police as well as the incumbent City Clerk to hear their perspectives related to the attributes and challenges associated with elected positions. Conversely, the Committee also heard from the Los Gatos Town Clerk and a Retired Chief of Police from the City of Mountain View who presented their perspectives on the attributes and challenges of an appointed City Clerk and Chief of Police.
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23-1294 Agenda Date: 11/7/2023
In accordance with City Council’s direction, the Committee utilized a variety of community engagement tools that included:
• Hybrid meetings to facilitate online participation
• Meetings both at City Hall and the Central Park Library to provide accessibility and live- streaming
• Expert presentations to allow for real-time question and answer engagement from the Committee as well as the community
• Dedicated webpage with relevant Committee-related resources was created to provide a one- stop resource for information
• Information about the Committee was shared across all City’s communications channels:
GovDelivery emails and social media platforms: X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, NextDoor. • A community survey utilizing the City’s Open City Hall online platform was open for a period of six weeks (September 7 through October 12, 2023).
• A decision-tree voting by written ballot to facilitate transparency in the Committee’s deliberations, as the Committee worked to develop preliminary and final Committee recommendations.
As a result of their deliberations, the Committee voted to recommend that the City Council place on the March 2024 ballot the following two charter amendments:
City Clerk: “Shall an amendment to the City Charter providing that the City Clerk position be appointed by the City Manager be adopted?”
Chief of Police: “Shall an amendment to the City Charter providing that the Chief of Police position be appointed by the City Manager be adopted?”
Following a concern expressed by Committee Member Davis regarding a desire to ensure a diverse pools of candidates, the Committee also discussed including in their final recommendations a request that the City Manager be encouraged to utilize recruitment strategies and hiring practices that would promote as diverse a pool of qualified candidates as possible if the charter amendments are ultimately approved by voters.
In making their recommendations, the majority of the Committee expressed their belief that appointed positions would enable the City to attract a larger pool of diverse, professional candidates that could be held accountable through regular performance reviews and in a timely fashion dictated by circumstances. Moreover, the prevailing sentiment was that appointed positions would isolate the positions from undue political influence.
The following chart provides a summary of the Committee’s final voting:
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23-1294 Agenda Date: 11/7/2023
At the meeting on November 7, Chair Houston will provide greater detail on the Committee’s work effort and the rationale for the Committee’s recommendations. All Committee members have been invited to attend the Council presentation and offered the opportunity to express their views on the process and the Committee’s recommendations.
Next Steps
With the presentation of the Committee’s final recommendations, the work of the 2023 Charter Review Committee will be complete. The next step is for the City Council to deliberate and determine whether to call for a special election on March 5, 2024 for voters to consider one or both of the ballot measures. Initial Council feedback on the Charter Review Committee’s recommendations and direction to staff can be provided at the November 7th meeting. Additionally, in accordance with the schedule presented to the City Council in the July 18, 2023 Report to Council (RTC 23-824), staff has planned to schedule final action on the potential ballot measures on November 14, 2023. This date or another date prior to December 5, 2023, will allow for the item to be heard at two separate regular Council meetings (if needed) prior to the Registrar of Voters deadline of December 8, 2023.
On October 26, 2023, the City Council took action to consider a written petition to re-schedule consideration of a special election to an alternate date. Council is scheduled to consider that item on November 7th. As such, scheduling of the agenda item for a special election is pending Council action.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The action being considered does not constitute a “project” within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15378(b)(5) in that it is a governmental organizational or administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect changes in the environment.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact other than staff time. In the event that the Council approves the recommendations of the Committee, The estimated cost for a special election that includes up to two measures is $362,000 in costs for the Registrar of Voters plus approximately $60,000-70,000 for city costs related to printing, translations, publication of notices and other related costs for a total of approximately $432,000. It should be noted that should the ballot measures be successful, this one- City of Santa Clara Printed on 11/28/2023Page 3 of 4
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23-1294 Agenda Date: 11/7/2023
time cost would be offset by the on-going cost of future elections. Conversely, if the ballot measures fail, the cost for a special election would be on top of the costs scheduled to be incurred in November 2024 as both the incumbent positions of Chief of Police and City Clerk would be up for re-election at that time.
COORDINATION
This report has been coordinated with the City Manager’s office, the City Clerk’s office, and the City Attorney.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email [email protected] or at the public information desk at any City of Santa Clara public library.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff does not have a position on the recommendations from the Charter Review Committee or the potential ballot measures.
Should the City Council find that the Charter Review Committee has completed its charge, the City Council should:
1. Accept the report of the Charter Review Committee; and
2. Provide initial feedback and direction to staff on the preparation of required ballot submission materials for the City Council to consider at a subsequent meeting on December 5th or a prior date.
Prepared by: Cynthia Bojorquez, Assistant City Manager
Approved by: Jovan D. Grogan, City Manager
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Council and Authorities Concurrent Meeting on 2023-11-07 5:30 PM 11-07-23 17:30
Agenda Name Comments Support Oppose Neutral
Joint Dinner - 5:30 PM | Regular Meeting - 7:00 PM 1 0 0 1 5:30 PM JOINT DINNER 1 0 0 1
5. 23-1294 Presentation of the Recommendations from the 2023 Charter Review Committee Related to the Positions of Chief of Police and City Clerk
1 0 1 0
Sentiments for All Agenda Items
The following graphs display sentiments for comments that have location data. Only locations of users who have commented will be shown.
Overall Sentiment
Agenda Item: eComments for Joint Dinner - 5:30 PM | Regular Meeting - 7:00 PM Overall Sentiment
Diane Harrison
Location:
Submitted At: 2:21pm 11-07-23
As a former member and attendee of BPAC meetings for many years, I'd like to see more council and staff support for infrastructure projects proposed and thought through by BPAC members. Member expertise in bicycle and pedestrian areas is squandered when people are ignored for years and finally quit the committee.
Agenda Item: eComments for 5:30 PM JOINT DINNER
ECOMMENT
Overall Sentiment
Diane Harrison
Location:
Submitted At: 2:23pm 11-07-23
When good suggestions are ignored, the problems don't go away, but get brought up again & again by new members who also want those problems solved. Even when we've had subcommittees (e.g. Wayfinding & Roundabouts) that put in a lot of work, staff consistently says “No” and shelves the project. We also need to update the Traffic Calming guidelines that are decades out of date and prevent almost all needed traffic calming.
Agenda Item: eComments for 5. 23-1294 Presentation of the Recommendations from the 2023 Charter Review Committee Related to the Positions of Chief of Police and City Clerk Overall Sentiment
Susan Hinton
Location:
Submitted At: 8:18pm 11-05-23
The survey responses (look for yourself) are of 2 types. Registered responses, 99% from Santa Clarans, overwhelmingly support continuing to elect the Police Chief & City Clerk. Then, starting at 7:30am on 9/11 there are thousands Unregistered, unclaimed identical entries, many in multiples entered at the same timestamp, answering "Y es" to appoint the positions. This is clearly survey fraud and these entries should be ignored. Anyone voting to accept these entries is complicit with fraud.
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