COUNCIL POLICY
Subject:
PROCEDURE FOR FILLING COUNCIL VACANCIES
Policy
Number
Effective
Date
Number
of Pages
000-23 1-15-13 Page 1 of 2
BAC
KGROUND:
Santa Rosa City Charter Section 31 provides that vacancies of the City Council may be filled by appointment but does not provide procedures for making an appointment.
PURPOSE:
To establish a procedure by which the Council may fill Council vacancies by appointment.
POLICY:
The following procedures will be utilized by the Council to fill a Council vacancy by appointment:
A. Schedule : At the earliest possible time after a vacancy occurs, the Council shall adopt a time schedule.
1. Setting a time and date by which any qualif ied person interested in being appointed shall submit an application.
2. Setting a time and date by which questions for the applicants may be submitted by the public.
3. Setting a date or dates on which applicants will be interviewed by the City Council at a public meeting.
B. Applications . The application of a person interested in being appointed to the Council shall state background, qualifications and why he or she wishes to be appointed. In addition to completing an application any person applying for the vacancy shall be required to file with the City Clerk the following additional documents:
1. A Nomination Form containi ng valid signatures of at least 20 registered voters of the City of Santa Rosa. The fact that a voter has signed nomination papers for more than one applicant shall not invalidate the signature
2. A completed Statement of Economic Interests (Form 700) provided by the Fair Political Practices Commission.
C. Disclosure of Applications
. Following the deadline set by the Council for the submittal of applications, copies of all applications and the names of the applicants shall be filed in the City Clerk’s office and made public. No information shall be disclosed prior to the close of the application deadline.
D. Questions from the Public
. Questions for or concerning applicants may be submitted in writing by the public to the City Clerk. Following the deadline set by the Council for the submittal of questions, all such questions shall be forwarded to Council members, who may use them in the applicant interviews.
E. Advance Questions for Applicants . The Council, by motion, may choose to present questions in advance of the interviews to the applicants and may choose to require applicants to either answer all such questions at the interviews or provide written responses Attachment 1
COUNCIL POLICY
Subject:
PROCEDURE FOR FILLING COUNCIL VACANCIES
Policy
Number
Effective
Date
Number
of Pages
000-23 1-15-13 Page 2 of 2
to all such questions prior to the interviews. Proposed advance questions may be suggested by individual Council members or may be drafted by an ad hoc committee of the Council appointed by the Mayor for that purpose.
F. Council Interviews . Applicant interviews shall be conducted in a public meeting, which may be televised and recorded. At the time and date set for applicant interviews, each applicant shall be interviewed separately and shall be given the opportunity to make a brief statement concerning his or her qualifications and to answer any question previously submitted to the applicant by the Council. Thereafter, each Council member may question each applicant on any subject he or she feels is relevant to that applicant’s qualifications to sit on the Council. Based on the time available and the number of candidates, the Council, by majority vote, may require a time limit on interviews, limit the number of questions of, and receive answers from each applicant.
G. Voting Procedure
.
a. The person to fill the Council vacancy shall be selected from all applicants by a process of elimination.
b. Each Council member shall vote for thr ee applicants. In the event there are more than ten applicants, the Council may elect to vote for four applicants in the first round and then proceed as set forth below.
c. Those applicants receiving one vote or less shall be eliminated.
d. Subsequent votes shall be taken wi th each Council member voting for one less applicant than voted for in the previous round until each Council member exercises one vote. Only applicants not eliminated may be voted upon.
e. The applicant who receives four or mo re votes in the final round of voting shall be appointed to fill the vacancy.
G. Appointment by the Council
. Following the close of all interviews the Council may, by resolution, appoint one of the applicants to fill the Council vacancy if an applicant receives a majority vote of the Council. If a majority of the Council cannot agree on the appointment of one of the applicants, the Council may adopt such other procedures to fill the vacancy as it deems appropriate but the process must be completed within the sixty- day time period provided by City Charter Section 31 or the Council shall be required to call a special election for purposes of filling the vacancy as required by the Charter.
Amended by Resolution No. 28224 Dated: January 15, 2013 Amended by Resolution No. 26891 Dated: July 10, 2007
Adopted by Resolution No. 19000 Dated: July 19, 1988 Attachment 1