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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-09-2015 Minutes Minutes June 9, 2015 Citizens Volunteer Charter Review Committee Call to Order Chair Savage called the meeting to order at 5:07 p.m. Committee Roll Call Gloria Harrison, Michael Craft, Gary Walborne,Casey Dailey, Phil Savage, Hillel Cohn,Thomas Pierce, and Dennis Baxter. Staff Present City Attorney Gary Saenz,City Clerk Gigi Hanna, Mayor Carey Davis. Chair's Comments None Public comments Jim Smith,of San Bernardino, spoke in favor of Management Partners advising the Charter Committee and said that the 17-member Core Strategic Planning committee is continuing to work together with them and will be meting again on July 20 from 8 a.m.to noon. Minutes of 5/26/15 meeting Motion to approve by Michael Craft, second by Gary Walbourne. Passed unanimously. Old Business Chair Phil Savage asked for the status of getting professional Charter consultant help with the process. Clerk Hanna said she had made the committee's wishes know to the city manager's office and she didn't know when a consultant would be on board. Gary Saenz gave an update about the bankruptcy matters, specifically the city's request to continue a hearing on the firefighter's request for a restraining order and injunction preventing the city from contracting out fire services.A hearing has been set for July 15 to hear the matter.This is one of the primary items in the city's plan of adjustment, Saenz said. Mr.Savage said he would continue to follow the approach the committee had decided on previously until a consultant is on board. The committee discussed the status of its Public Input questionnaire on Charter Reform. Communications Manager Monica Lagos spoke to the committee about the web-based survey and said she'd send each of the committee members a link to it.The means of getting the most participation in the survey were discussed. Lagos said the survey might be more accepted by the community if it comes from people they know. She asked the committee to weigh in on how to proceed, although the City Manager's office also plans to send out the survey via Facebook,Twitter, Next Door and other social media. She said it was important to put it out on several platforms—electronic, printed and other. Hillel Cohn asked about how to get participation from younger members of the community. He also suggested presentations to service groups. Savage said he'd passed out 50 surveys at a baseball game and received about 4 back. It was suggested that the youth groups such as Generation Now and Inland Congregations United for Change be involved in passing the links on. Dennis Baxter asked about the controls on the survey.And there was discussion about maintaining the integrity of the data and the survey. Casey Dailey said he'd like the City to use it partnership with the City schools,specifically to use their distribution list to get the survey out. Clerk Hanna said that free notices in the water bills or using the lighted billboards along the 215 might be potential places to run the ads. And there was discussion about a press release going out when the survey is officially launched June 15. There were questions about how the survey would work. Ms. Lagos suggested the survey be open at least until September 15 to catch people who are gone for the summer,etc. Rabbi Cohn asked whether the Sun or Press Enterprise and minority and weekly newspapers might be contacted regarding running the survey. He said there is value in doing something ceremonially and suggested a formal filling out of the survey by the council at a meeting. Mr. Dailey said it all needs to be synched so that the survey roll-out draws attention to it. Ms. Lagos said she could have the press release and surveys ready for the following Monday. Mr.Savage went through the answers that had been received so far. The committee agreed that the survey was ready to go and asked that it be distributed. Monica said the survey would be available beginning on Monday June 15. Mr. Savage said he was concerned about the timeline and keeping on track through the summer. Rabbi Cohn said we have a PR problem. "It is great to do a survey but how do you communicate with the public that their input is needed.We are proceeding with that assumption,right?" Mr. Savage said under each of the topics they are discussing,what is the treatment of the topic if under general law,or what is the situation under the present charter. Rabbi Cohn said he wants to public to know that we are asking their input because we value it, not because we've already made up our mind. 0 Dr. Pierce said it was critical for the committee to have the assistance from the experts. Management Partners said they had some reservations about the questionnaire and suggested focus groups and she knows how to organize this and give us advice on how to get this done. I think the questionnaire is a small part of the larger issue about communicating continuously with lots of different groups in the community. The committee discussed the skeleton framework that Mr. Savage has provided as a means to work through the issues that the Committee is considering. Mr. Dailey said he supports that approach so that when the survey info is back and the assistance is on board,they will have already been through a lot of the work to determine where the committee stands and see where things align and don't and decided how to move forward from there.The survey going through the summer will allow ample time for people to respond, he said. "I don't think it will harm us in our discussions because we want the public's input, but we're not going to have a thumbs up or thumbs down simply based on the responses we get." The June 15 to September 15 term of the survey gives the committee time to go through the charter topics,do focus groups and get assistance it needs on board and provides a sufficient amount of time for community to provide input, Dailey said. Mr. Baxter said he had seen the presentation from Management Partners and that they would essentially be the committee's staff once the city manager gets them on board. Savage the issue is what the city manager's office thinks the city should be paying for support the committee. Michael Craft said he thinks the survey is the first step and can lead to community focus groups. He said he didn't see the survey being a hindrance but an enhancement to it. He said he likes the skeleton approach. Dr. Harrison said she wants the committee to stay focused,do the skeleton and not discuss things to death.She said she like Management Partners;they are the people who did the study before and they know this city better than people around this table, in some ways.The problem with city folks being our staff is that they are going to be involved in the bankruptcy procedures for a long time." I don't want to continue to discuss to death stuff. We are all busy people and we have a lot of work to do.So that's my biggest concern." Mr. Walbourne said Management Partners helped the bankruptcy team and was good as a guide in getting through the plan of adjustment process.Someone to guide through the process would be more efficient. The committee voted unanimously to approve using the Preliminary Timeline#2 as a working guide. (Motion by Tom Pierce, second by Hiliel Cohn). ( Mr. Savage explained how he had come up with the form of government skeleton for Charter change. Phil provided an analysis of the structure and followed the approach,going through each item comparing to model city charter,other charters of cities similarly sized to San Bernardino (there are four Charter cities 200,000 to 300,000 population). Essentially all,with the exception of Stockton, have council/management form of government.Those in 50,000-population-and-below range also use council/manager forms of governance.The recommendation has been that this is the right structure for SB to move towards that. Mr. Dailey said council/manager is the way to go in his mind and that the ICCM recommends the council-manager approach.The evidence is born out in the analysis provided; I think this is the direction we should go, he said. Savage said one issue is to decide what goes in the Charter and what goes into the Municipal Code. Dr. Pierce said he also supports the council-manager form of government.As reading through the national civic league. It is what the experts consider and have considered for a long time, best practice and that's something we need in our city—best practices to deliver the quality of life to our residents that we all deserve. Saenz reiterated that the core team of the strategic planning said there was close to unanimous support for council-manager form of government and they are representative of a significant portion of the city. If looking toward an election where the voters would replace the charter,you'd theoretically have that significant support from the community in terms of that form of government. Phil said 22 of the 29 respondents supported that form of government as well. Mr. Baxter said he was not going to disagree. The committee voted unanimously to approve the council-manager form of government as part of the skeleton. (Motion by Dennis Baxter/Hillel Cohn) Savage said he felt that analysis of the council would be more difficult because there are many ways councils are structured under charters.San Bernardino has had a ward based system. It once had five wards and then changed to seven wards and is embedded in our blood. The seven-member council is as large as you'd find in any major city, Savage said.The details we get into will be whether the mayor has a vote or is a member of the council; we can take that up later. He said the league of California Cities says having a mayor with veto power is against best practices. But if the mayor is a member of the council,there will be a will need to get back to an odd number for the council. The council election process that intrigues him the most is one whereby wards nominate councilpersons and then they go to the citywide final election.You have the primary election at the ward level and the final is citywide. He contacted people in Stockton and Santa Ana,the two cities with this process. In Stockton each ward is required to nominate two or more then there is an at large system. In Santa Ana, you only have to nominate one candidate in the ward.Santa Ana is comfortable with the process. in Stockton,they have had this system but one segment of the community decided it made it difficult to i get true representation and said the council was too close without enough conflict because there wasn't true ward representation.Their charter review committee is planning to present a recommendation away from this system to one with district/ward elections. Clerk Hanna said that the cost of a candidate statement for a city-wide election would be significantly higher than for a district election.Savage said that was considered a problem in Stockton,but not in Santa Ana. Dr. Harrison said the Community College District went to a district system and the statement went from $12,000 to about$2,500.The other issues,she said is that they looked at the Colton School Board system.They have people who fill the papers and we had a legal opinion that once have a city-wide election,then the city-wide influence determines who is going to represent that ward.And in some San Bernardino elections,the turnout has been 4 percent,8 percent. In those cases,we do not have true representation anyway.So to avoid the legal hassle the community college board decided not to have it elected at large. Several cities around the state have been challenged about whether they have true representation. I think the council-manager form of government is fine. I like the idea of having to vote for a mayor.That person is going to have the skill set to influence and build consensus and have leadership quality in order to be an influencer,Harrison said. Rabbi Cohn said he'd been so impressed with the work that Management Partners has done. So why do we discuss these items before hearing from them?They have a good idea of where the city is at and I'd like to hear what they have to say. Mr.Savage said he'd hate to delay the discussion to wait for them to come in.Any decisions they make are preliminary and can be changed if Management Partners recommends it. Mr.Clark said that's the benefit of having an expert—the ability to analyze what the intent is and the desire. He said that the survey wants the council elected by ward,to a great margin.At-large elections tend to go to the ones with the most money to spend to win the election.Some wards have better turnout for voters but with the higher voter turnout,that could cause a skew and I'm also concerned about the monetary factor.At this point, looking at the survey, I'd be inclined to say let's stick with the ward system. Dr. Pierce said one issue that people were interested in,even since the 2000 charter review,was keeping the wards in order to keep the minority communities with adequate representation. Mr. Craft said he was asked at a Town Hall meeting whose interests he represents and he said he is representing the residents of the fifth ward and he had documentation that the fifth ward residents are supporting more than two-to-one the ward system. i Mr. Dailey said the community has grown to expect the ward system and there are pros and cons to both that and the at-large system. I think from a political feasibility of getting things through,getting completely rid of the ward system could be a death blow to the committee or any viable option to make change. He said there are several possible outcomes and mentioned potential scenarios that would have an outcome of elections. He said we need to stick with the way it is now and keep the wards intact. Mr.Savage said he doesn't know how the city could move away from a basic ward system. He said he was talking to a couple of council members and he doubts they would put the question on the ballot. Mr. Walbourne said changing wards to at-large city wide vote would make people feel like they aren't represented. He said the committee needs to be discussing the role of mayor. Rabbi Cohn asked if it turns out the best form of government to the city is hard to sell to the public,does that mean we scrap it? I don't have the answer, I'm just asking. If that's the goal,then we need to dismiss the question of what's sellable. Mr.Savage said that Management Partners told us not to just be idealistic, but practical. Dr. Harrison said her motion to keep the ward system was not because it was the most efficient, but because it offered the most opportunity for representation to the diverse community. Mr.Savage said the committee will take up the issue of the inter-relationship of the mayor, at the next meeting. Dr. Pierce said what he wants and what others want is the best charter they could have for the city. The committee unanimously passed a motion to keep a ward system. Motion made by Gloria Harrison and seconded by Casey Dailey. Mr. Savage said the group could add another council person and give the mayor a vote,when the group eventually discusses the issue.Another issue he mentioned was making the council members full-time. Mr. Craft said he has a proposal for full-time council members and Mr. Savage suggested they take the issue up at the next meeting. The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.