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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995-07-17 CRC MINS MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY .OF CHULA -VISTA CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION JULY 17, 1995 July 17, 1995 City Attorney's Conference Room 4 :30 p.m. ----------------------------------------------------------------- MEMBERS PRESENT: Bob Campbell, Deric Prescott, Rosie Bystrak, John Dorso, Sharon Reid and Janet Lawry (arrived 4:50 p.m. ) MEMBERS ABSENT: Jack Blakely STAFF -PRESENT: City Attorney Bruce Boogaard The meeting was called to order by Chairman Campbell at 4: 35 p.m. The roll was called and all members were present except Member Blakely (unexcused) . MSUC (Reid/Prescott) to approve the minutes of June 5, 1995. Report on March, 1996 Election Budget for Measure. The secretary reported at Council's budget session of June 20, 1995, $7, 000 was appropriated to allow one proposition to. be ,.placed on the 'March ballot. The dollar amount . is based on estimates obtained by the City Clerk from the Registrar of Voters. Council indicated additional money could be appropriated if other measures were necessary. A suggestion was made to have one proposition containing numerous measures. However, the City Attorney reported under the "single subject rule" you cannot combine multiple policy issues of any significance into one item unless it is a technical cleanup. Continued Review of Measures for Future Ballot, Suggest Arguments For and Against; Discuss Analysis. Measure No. 14 - Youth Commissioner Terms Reduced to Two Years. Deric Prescott thought it prudent to write a letter to the Council suggesting two two-year terms for Youth Commissioners. If . the . Council makes the change through an ordinance amendment, the City would not have to expend money for a Charter change. Sharon Reid stated it's clear that boards and commissions established by the . Charter have four-year terms but we can interpret the language to mean b/c/c's created by ordinance can have terms governed by their ordinance. s_ Y e Charter Review Commission Minutes July 17, 1995 - Page 2 Chairman Campbell recommended the term for the Youth Commission to be two two-year terms and the have the City Attorney notify the Council of its recommendation. Measure No. 7 - Terms Limits and Appointments for Boards and Commissions. In June of 1992 , the voters amended §602 to provide a term in excess of two years shall be counted as a term. This measure involves a situation when an appointment is made for exactly two years. MS' (Reid/Prescott) that the Commission's response on Measure No. 7 is that the City Attorney should be thanked for bringing this potential situation to our attention and that the City Attorney or the City Clerk, or both, should monitor appointments to identify in the unique circumstance that a person would be appointed and have exactly two years of a term, that that action be deferred to ,make it clear, rather than incur the cost of a change to the Charter. Bob Campbell indicated if you serve exactly two years, you are not serving more than two years and we should come up with a decision that categorizes two years to be the same as two years or less. Motion Amended to state we need to make no recommendation because an exact term of two years is not in excess of two years, and, therefore, should be interpreted as less than two years, thus making the appointee eligible to an additional term. Motion Amended and Unanimously Carried to include the Commission considered Measure No. 7 and does not believe a Charter change is necessary and in the odd event that the swearing in of a newly appointed b/c/c member would create an exactly two year situation, the Commission' concluded that exactly two years in not in excess of two years and, therefore, is less than two years. Further, for the purpose of this section, appointment to fill an initial term or an unexpired term of less than two years in duration, shall not be considered a term and if it is in excess of two years, it should be considereda full term. If there is ever an omnibus technical clean up, this measure qualifies. To be perfectly clear and in an abundance of caution, the City Clerk and the City Attorney should be alerted if an exact two-year situation would arise and avoid it. This could be a part of the - Commission's report' to the Council. The City Attorney suggested not allowing any commissioners to be sworn in on June 30 of any year. r Charter Review Commission Minutes July 17, 1995 Page 3 Measure No. 8 Amending the title to Article VI to include reference to committees and specifying the role of committees and the provisions for their creation. The proposed language adds committees to the title. Subsection -(b) allows the Council to create citizen committees. There is presently no structure for dealing with their creation. With this proposal, they can only be created for advising on questions with clearly defined objectives, be temporary in nature and have a mandatory dissolution. Attorney Boogaard reported a project area committee is a state= sanctioned committee and has a statutory life of three years after the project area forms, and then are disbanded. City Attorney Boogaard stated it is good social policy to have a sunset clause with a limited scope of purpose. It was believed the genesis of Measure No. 8 was due to former Mayor Nader wanting to form an overseeing committee to investigate and take evidence in the labor dispute in the bus issue. The Commission reviewed the history of this measure and minutes of their meeting of January 18 , 1994 wherein Councilman Moore stated: • Only Council should be able to create committees because there are too many committees resulting in staff time and costs. • He was concerned about the proposed provision giving committees. the power to investigate and take evidence under oath or affirmation. General discussion ensued by the Commission relating to language in §600 being vague and ambiguous when it refers to "such" b/c/c's as to whether it includes Charter-created commissions or ordinance- created commissions. Sharon Reid suggested a recommendation to Council could be under their powers to create committees, that they should bear in mind there is a cost to proliferate committees,. and in the past, once created, they never seem to disappear. The creating ordinance should speak clearly to the intentions of Council to include investigative powers when creating a committee. Chairman Campbell stated we need to define the "scope of committee structure" . Who shall . create? Are all of them to be temporary? If not, what limitations are attached? r Charter Review Commission Minutes July 17, 1995 -= Page 4 Sharon Reid noted Measures No. 8 through 12 are interrelated and deal with b/c/c's and minor changes thereto. The City Attorney replied he would consolidate five separate measures into one measure and have it prepared for the next meeting. MSUC (Prescott/Bystrak) to adjourn the meeting at 5 : 50 to their next meeting on Monday, August 7, 1995 at 4 : 30 p.m. Lorraine Kraker, Secretary C:\crc\minute\7-17-95