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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-10-2015 Charter Committee Agenda & Backup City of San Bernardino Volunteer Citizen-Based Charter Committee Agenda Time: 5:00 p.m. Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Place: EDA Board Room 201 N. E Street, San Bernardino, CA 92418 The City of San Bernardino recognizes its obligation to provide equal access to public services to those individuals with disabilities. Please contact the City Clerk's Office (909) 384-5102) one working day prior to the meeting for any requests for reasonable accommodation, to include interpreters. Anyone who wishes to speak on an agenda item will be required to fill out a speaker slip.Speaker slips should be turned in to the City Clerk,who will relay them to the Committee Chair person.Public comments for agenda items are limited to three minutes per person. ROLL CALL PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE CHAIR'S COMMENTS PUBLIC COMMENT (LIMIT 30 MINUTES) ACTION ITEMS 9 1. Approval of minutes from January 6, 2015 meeting(Attached) 2. Presentation by and discussion with Michael Martello, ILG-recommended Charter expert 3. Review, discuss and make possible changes to RFP for Charter facilitator/expert ADJOURN The next meeting of the Volunteer Citizen-Based Charter Committee will be 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 10, 2015 in the EDA Board Room, 201 N. D. Street. Attendees are encouraged to park on the top floor of the City Hall parking structure and access the EDA building from there. i Volunteer Citizen Based Charter Committee Tuesday, January 6, 2015 Minutes The meeting came to order at 6 p.m. in the EDA board room, with Committee members Dennis Baxter, Gary Walbourne, Michael Craft, Phil Savage, Tom Pierce and Gloria Harrison Present. Members Cohn and Dailey were absent. Also in attendance were City Attorney Gary Saenz, Mayor Carey Davis and City Clerk Gigi Hanna. Committee chairman Phil Savage called the meeting to order, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and Clerk Hanna read the roll call and announced that member Hardy Brown had resigned from the committee. Savage said the group should keep in mind its Guiding Principles and Objectives for a good City charter as it continues its Charter Review work Public Comment Four people spoke during the Public Comment period: Roger Henderson, of San Bernardino: said we need to start the new year with a brand new charter and a brand new city. You have nine people working on the charter and a city going through bankruptcy; we don't need a charter that has been patched. He suggested that the committee look to the charters of Anaheim or Riverside and use them as models because the Charters are simple and the cities have not been through bankruptcy and are being run well.The only section of the Charter that might be a stumbling block is Section 186, and if that is the case, the committee should concentrate on that and make it a fair deal for everyone. Paul Sanborn, of San Bernardino: said he is trying to get council to put the idea of a full-time council on the ballot,possibly with a salary of$75,000.The state mandates that we have 5 council people, and we could get rid of two council members and make the other wards bigger. He said the need for that could be seen in the length and business of the council meeting the previous night, where grant awarded in 2005 had to be approved immediately or lost. They are running the city on a part-time basis and that's why we are in bankruptcy. I'm hoping this is one of the things changed. We need a full time council with salary to get the city in gear. If you don't do it,we won't get any further and the city will go nowhere, he said, adding that if they could put the question on the November 2015 ballot, he believed it would pass. Tim Prince, of San Bernardino: said what the citizenry wants is a city hall that is functional and united and we have not seen that, even after the recall. He suggested that when the committee considers charter change,to go back to its adopted guiding principals and put unity first. We can't waste any more time on small changes to the charter.The voters like a big chunk and if you 1 I give them a menu of bigger and smaller choices, they will take the small and easy ones and leave the big ones. One possibility is to throw out entire charter and propose a new one, which is manageable for the electorate because it is a one piece to decide. If you chose to go a different route, however, give them a menu of real important things that will enable the council and elected officials to work together. Successful cities such as Redlands, Anaheim, Riverside and Irvine have the same thing in common: community spirit, something that existed in the Holcomb years, he said. I think in the future,the better way to do it is change the charter not into old model with elected fiefdoms, but one with a real City Manager model,where we have professional leader to attract business and jobs to this town. Scott Olson, of San Bernardino: We are at a fresh starting point and I hope there are a lot of lessons learned from the first attempt of charter review.The charter is a gift given to the residents for the residents to vote on to protect the residents for the resident's reasons, he said. The Charter is not an obstacle but the will of the people and when you put yourself together to go against the will of the people; your efforts will not accomplish your goals. He said if there is an attempt to change or get rid of the charter the city should first identify what the problem is. Your premise was to pick certain items and try to create charter change around them. You need to consider the core problem of the charter and if you cannot identify that,why are you here? Secondly, you need to set up goals and objectives. He said the committee should start from basics and build from there, and not plug individual ideas into charter change and work around them, or they would face another defeat like Measure Q. ACTION ITEMS 1. Approval of Minutes. The committee unanimously approved the minutes from the November 18, 2014 meeting,with Baxter abstaining because he had not been at the meeting. 2. Discussion and Possible Action on Use of Consultant/Advisor from Institute of Local Government Clerk Hanna reported that the ILG had suggested Michael Martello to voluntarily advice the committee, on government structure and how to navigate a Charter Review and eventual change process, as had been requested at the previous meeting. Committee member Craft expressed some concern about Martello's bio highlighting SLAPP legislation. He said reading he had done online indicated that SLAPP legislation would censure public discussion. He said he was uncomfortable using the consultant without know more about his background. Clerk Hanna said she would clarify Mr. Martello's experience, and arrange for him to attend the next meeting. Baxter said he thought that bringing in Martello was a viable idea to get an outside objective perspective of what other cities are doing. 2 Saenz said an RFP could go out almost immediately from the City Manager's Office. He said it would take about 30 days for an adequate response time. On the outside, it would be 60 days before someone would be onboard, Saenz said. Gloria Harrison said the committee wants to say what it is they need when they send out the RFP. In her vision, she said they need a facilitator to go through the process to get to the point to say we want to fix it or start new. Educating of themselves of what has worked and what has not worked in other cities. AS long as the RFP makes it clear that wants a facilitator rather than an advisor. Saenz said there is room in the RFP for the committee to fashion language that will more particularly define the type of expert they are interested in Pierce said he wanted to be sure to have both a facilitator and an Charter expert. He asked for the committee to be able to review the RFP language before it goes out. Chair Savage the committee is trying to figure what its focus should be and a facilitator/expert would help that process. Pierce said he would like to have the SLAPP issue resolved before Martello comes to the meeting. Savage said he could not tell if the bio meant Martello supported or opposed SLAPP legislation Tim Prince spoke to the committee. He said he had looked into anti-SLAPP legislation and he thinks it is good legislation. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, and anti-SLAPP legislation in California is designed to reduce frivolous lawsuits against those who would speak about an item on a public agenda. Prince said he thinks it is highly commendable that Martello would stand up for the right of people to come to the podium. Clerk Hanna said she would email Mr. Martello for clarification on these points: Martello's input and general feeling about the California anti-SLAPP legislation; his experience with Charters, what cities he's worked in,the level of his work on a charter committee and the outcome of any review process. The committee agreed by consensus to give the Chair authority to rescind the invitation to Martello if information provided to him by Clerk Hanna caused him any concern about the man's ability to facilitate the Charter Review process. Chair said it didn't make sense yet to set the frequency of meetings. Clerk Hanna said that the Clerk and City Attorney would prefer that the meetings not be on the first or third Tuesday of the month because it follows the council meeting. The meeting adjourned at 7:05 p.m. The next meeting will be Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 5 p.m. 3