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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-10-27 CRC MINS MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION October 27., 1997 Council Conference Room 4: 30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: John Dorso, Jack Blakely, Harriet Acton, Barbara McAllister and Deric Prescott MEMBERS ABSENT: David Potter and Bob Campbell STAFF PRESENT: City Attorney John M. Kaheny The meeting was called to order at 4: 35 p.m. 1. Roll Call. The roll was called and all. members were present except Members Campbell and Potter. 2 . Approval of Minutes. MSUC (Blakely/Acton) to approve the minutes of September 15, 1997 as presented. 3 . Comments regarding District Elections Prior to Councilman Moot's address to the Commission, Chair Dorso commented that this commission is not rushing to judgment. .There is A lot of work to do and a lot of information needs to be provided. There is still a long way to go. Councilman Rindone was heard from at the last meeting and this Commission will hear from you. Councilman Moot stated that this issue is something that should not be rushed into. The notion to have district elections is a positive one and there may be many benefits from having district elections although there may be some unintended circumstances. It might be helpful to the Commission to share his thoughts and ideas on the subject based on having walked every section of this City in the process of his last election. There are several options available. One viable option is going to district elections but there may be potential unintended circumstances that may be associated with district elections. When ' you go to district elections, by definition you're going to have to begin drawing lines where lines do not exist. People within their district tend to get very parochial and the. needs and concerns can 7 and may supersede what is in the best_ interest of the City at large. What comes to mind was the inability of the City of San Diego to decide to relocate the airport to a better location to Miramar and the fear of reaction in their district. This is one example of what happens when you go to district elections. Do the concerns of the part of the city predominate the concerns of the city as a whole? An important decision Councilman Moot made was SR-125 and whether that road should have the full support of the Council. The vote was unanimous. A popular myth is that the east side gets the most and the .west side is ignored. Major infrastructure improvements of the Montgomery area were traditionally ignored when it was part of the County and the Council unanimously agreed on two major significant projects - South Chula Vista Library and the Otay Gym. It is possible - and history bears out - that Council can work . together in all sections of the City and do so in a responsible manner. Whether or not benefits of dividing up the City and having people elected from only part of the City will work in the long term is something the Commission will have to debate and ultimately citizens of Chula Vista will have to debate again and look at how these things typically happen. How will the City handle elective representation is an interesting challenging issue the Commission .will have to face, an issue of great importance and very important changes to the charter. Member Blakely asked whether residency only vote citywide would have any bearing on how he felt? Councilman Moot replied that nothing is written in stone in terms of how you would do it. Member. Acton, for the record, quoted from the previous minutes "Rindone not proposing district elections but having four council seats filled from four geographic areas to balance the representations. Candidates will require a majority to win the primary, otherwise there will be a runoff. " Is the geographic area a boundary? Member McAllister asked "What is the difference?" Councilman Moot responded by stating that the School Board in San Diego has a primary election confined to a geographic district you are assigned to and the general election goes citywide. The confusion may lie .in that a primary election only your district votes and in a general election whomever wins, wins citywide. One point you may need to think through, whatever youfre trying to do, there are different ways and different options available and' then decide whether change will in fact resolve or go along with changing the Charter for the City. Member Potter commented that unity is very important and the greater interest of the City has been maintained regardless of where people live and in .a certain community can only experience beliefs or understandings of the problems of the City just by living there. If that is an important enough reason to encourage greater representation on the Council by having someone living in a certain geographic location can you-understand the problems or is it the opposite regardless of where they live? Councilman Moot commented that by sharing his personal experience and having learned a lot by walking precincts and different parts of the City, seeing no sidewalks, power poles not underground, rundown areas and neglected in the Montgomery area, if he was assigned an eastern district and was trying to get elected, in all honesty he probably wouldn't have walked the Montgomery area. Can the needs of the people by identified in certain areas without living there? Looking at the past Councils, yes they can. Member Blakely asked whether decisions in today's Council being made for the future after the year 2000 carry a lot of weight east of 805 because a councilmember lives there? Does that happen? Councilman Moot responded by stating that human nature being what it is that might happen. In his observation the very skills one has in being elected to a political office are the very skills that have to be abandoned in order to become a good representative. 4. Memo from City Manager regarding Proposed Changes to Election Procedures Item No 4 . was tabled to another meeting due to the length of the document and needing more time to review it. 5. 'Council Referral regarding Fiscal Year Calendar (A) Discussion by Budget Manager Dawn Herring on the Budget Process Budget Manager Dawn Herring presented a brief overview of the budget process. By virtue of the Charter a lot of factors are involved in this lengthy process. July 1 begins the preparation of the next year's budget, with departments preparing in Oct. through Dec. , budget analysis and review are done from Jan. and Feb. and the City Manager makes decisions for City Council and the public by the beginning of May. By changing the fiscal year, the same process still has to be followed. When a budget is being forecast in October, revenue estimates aren't received from the County and state until February. The best estimates don't come in. until April or June therefore there is a lot of projection. Staff hasn't gotten very good at it and there are still a lot of revisions and once the budget becomes a living document and adopted, amendments are still made as things change throughout the year so that is not a problem. One issue that needs to be clarified is the one with the state. There is a perception that the state has tremendous impact on our economic situation. The City receives revenue in the form of sales tax and the largest portion comes in property tax. These are the City's biggest sources of -revenue. The City also ! receives money through motor vehicle in lieu which are payments of registrations and those, types of fines which are fixed amounts and the City will continue to receive. What has happened over the past several years the state has taken liberties in interpretation and definition, what can be passed, what goes to the City and what the -state can keep. Cigarette tax monies used to come to the cities now the state has decided to keep them by changing the rules of the game. They also took a loophole in the property tax and took that money away. Typically we live on revenues that come to us without any other influence and there have been some very unusual rules in the past several years. When things even out, we'll be able to keep what we have without the state .trying to pick whatever pockets we have. We are also in the process of doing an analysis of a multiyear budget and could include. it with the subject of changing the fiscal year and other alternatives. We can look more at the pros and cons in that kind of report and bring back to you. Member Blakely: What are the drawbacks, if any? Budget Manager Herring: There's still . a lot of research to do. There's still the same hurdles to go through and we would have a better idea of our revenues. There may be some downsides not discovered yet. We will be talking to other agencies who have gone through that process and see what's gone well and what problems there may be. We can bring that information back to the Commission if the Commission so wishes. Manager Herring would work with the Commission Secretary as to when the report would come back. 6. Report by City Attorney John M. Kahenv_ At the last meeting Commissioner McAllister inquired if Proposition 208 would impact Chula Vista. There is no formal report as yet. This particular issue had to do with provisions of 208 that prohibited citizen appointees ' by councilmembers or council campaigns. There's some research from City of San Diego on that issue but can't speak for its worth at this point. One of the issues is being litigated in Northern California - campaign contributions by commissions appointed by council members or by mayoral or by city council in the next election is part of 208 - and subject of a lawsuit. There aren't many details on it but can get back to you and let you know where we are. It is problematic because in a city like Chula Vista hundreds of people who sit on boards and commissions participate in the politic process and would be cut out of it. Commissioner McAllister stated that the City of Escondido has already issued a letter to all commissioners regarding contributions. The City Attorney stated so had the City of San Diego. Like most propositions in California it may be years before we find out what's legal and what's not. Commissioner 1 Blakely asked if whether it would not be wise for the City 'Attorney to issue this letter of warning to the boards and commissions. City Attorney Kaheny stated that by the time he received opinion letters there would be other lawsuits filed therefore it would be best to have it altogether so he could better advise everyone. Commissioner McAllister inquired if it is a lawsuit and a decision being reached before the next coming election pretty small we would be under the FPDG interpretation of 208. City Attorney. Kaheny replied that the litigation on 209 the initial court ruling was. put on hold and did not know what the status of that lawsuit was and wanted to make sure of where they were. 7. Members' Comments Councilman Rindone deferred. to Councilmember Mary Salas who thanked the Commission for the ability to speak to them on this very important topic and to bring as many perspectives to the table. There is much hard work ahead and if there are to be any charter changes and to have as much participation of as many people as possible. Having run in the November 1996 election the campaign to run began as early as August 1995 . and cover as many precincts as possible which included taking an unpaid leave of absence during the last month of campaigning, not having the power of incumbency. Even doing that only 40 out of 120 precincts were covered. You have to make a lot of hard choices on whom to contact, look at the patterns and still a lot of neighborhoods are going to be uncovered. If you are to have representation and government close to the people we need to start talking about making districts more manageable and have the constituents get to know who you are and what you.'re all about. Evolved now in the election process is how much money you can raise to send mailers to reach those who will never see you and make the right decision in the voting. Who knows. what motivates a person to vote one way or the other. Historically, gerrymandering has been done for the purpose of achieving racial balance or creating a district that favors one race over the other. Chula Vista is so diverse that there is not one particular area which would be predominantly one group or another. Councilmember Salas stated that she raised over $60, 000 on her campaign and that figure is obscene. Keeping costs down is another reason for district election - not to say that district elections are the answer 'but here to take part in exploring all these things. Councilman Moot was very correct in saying when we're looking at a Charter change we have to be really serious about what we're doing in the long-term ramifications of it. . Another point Councilman Moot brought up and was in total agreement with was the idea of a fulltime council in the future. Chula Vista is facing a change and the city needs to be fully informed. Whether you may consider dividing the city into districts doesn't necessarily mean "gerrymandering" or gang politics but it can't L happen here in Chula Vista because of its diversity. Salas thanked the Commission for its volunteer efforts and having one of the highest responsibilities in the City. Commissioner Acton asked if she had any ideas about the high cost of campaigning and how to eliminate it - capping an allowance to be expended or not accepting money? Councilwoman Salas stated that ideas of capping have come forward but the argument is you would curtail free speech. If everyone would abide by the rules -- Prop. 208 talks about commissioners participation which would mean every single commission could not participate in this City in contributing or working. Commissioner McAllister stated that you could work but couldn't contribute and cannot be a treasurer for a candidate if that individual had appointed you. Councilwoman Salas commented on how chilling if we had to tell every commission member that they could not contribute to any candidate. That is certainly limiting free speech yet on the other hand is if that commissioner because of his influence were able to raise a lot of money because of that held position. Where do you draw the line? Councilwoman Salas stated that she was able to come to the Council very independent because there were no special interest groups but fundraising is very difficult and keeps very good people out of politics. Cutting up the City into districts in minimize costs is only one aspect. You have to attack campaign reform and lowering the cost. 8 . Public Comments. Jorge Covarubbias stated to the Commission that Councilwoman Salas'- point of view was a most important point. He also mentioned that bringing the cost of running for election had to be more reasonable. As a Sweetwater School District employee for 23 years he would like to see more young people get involved in city government. Armando A.Y. Casillas addressed the Commission and stated that having lived in the community for a number years also had personal experience in campaigning for elections. He saw that winning elections was not one of race but one that if one, does not have the money or the basis of community support, one is not going to win the election. He stated- that the Commission must look at other models --- what have other cities and counties done? 9 . Adjournment. MSUC (Blakely/Prescott) to adjourn meeting at 6: 02 p.m. to the next meeting scheduled for November 24, 1997 4 : 30 p.m. Secretary