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Home My WebLink AboutCHC 1990 FINAL DIGEST OF CHARTER AMENDMENTS R , • [FINAL DRAFT: APPROVED AT 8/6/90 MEETING] CHARTER AMENDMENT DIGEST INTRODUCTION The County Charter is the document which sets out the form of your county government. A number of amendments have been proposed to the County Charter. You may vote on these proposed changes at the general election on November 7, 1990. If a majorityof voters vote in favor of the amendment, it will become part of the County Charter. At the voting booth, you will receive a charter amendment ballot with sixteen different questions: Proposals "1"-"16. " If you favor the proposed change to the County Charter, you should vote "yes" on the proposal. If you do not favor the change, you • should vote "no. " The proposals are summarized below. ***************************************************************** Proposal "1" Ballot Proposal "1" would change the county council to single-member districts, and reduce the council member's terms from four years to two years. At present, the county council consists of nine members. Each of the nine council members is elected by the voters of the entire county. Each voter may vote for all nine council members. Six council members must live within specific geographical districts, while three may live- anywhere in the county. The term of office is four years. - • 1068 • If Ballot Proposal "1" is passed, each member of the council would be elected from a single-member district. There would be nine districts and a total of nine council members. Each voter would vote for only the one council member from his or her district. The councilmember would be required to live in the district. The term of office would be two years. Ballot Proposal "1" would also create a reapportionment commission that would establish the boundaries of the nine districts in 1991 and adjust the boundaries every ten years. Each district would contain about one-ninth of the total population of the county. • . If Ballot Proposal "1" is passed, the 1992 county council would be the first to be elected from the new single-member • districts. (Amends Charter Sections 3-2 and 3- 3, and adds a new Section 3-18) ***************************************************************** Proposal. "2" Initiative and referendum give the voters the power to enact or to repeal county laws, which are called ordinances, by their direct. vote. Proposal "2" would change some of the procedures used for initiative and referendum petitions. If Proposal "2" is passed, there would be a deadline to P submit initiative and referendum petitions: May 1 preceding the next general election for initiative petitions (which propose ordinances) , and June 1 for referendum petitions (which ask for the repeal of ordinances. ) Signatures on a petition would be 111 -2- 1069 • valid if obtained within two years of the deadline for submitting the petition. •Signatures would be,valid if the signer was a registered voter at the time the petition was submitted to the county clerk. If someone wished to withdraw a signature, the request would have to be notarized. The clerk would be given additional time to verify the number of signatures.- A petition would have to contain signatures equal to 15% of the number of people who voted in the last general election, instead of 15% who had voted for the office of mayor at the last election. Petition signers could use a mailing address. There would be a deadline for the petitioners' committee to withdraw a petition. The ballot would have to state the issue in plain language. (Amends Charter Sections 11-3, 11- 4, 11-5, 11-6, 11-7, and 11-8) • ***************************************************************** Proposal 113"" Proposal "3" would expand and change the powers of the police commission, and create a procedural requirement for the removal of the police chief. • The police commission is the body that appoints and removes the chief of police. If Proposal "3" is passed, the police commission would be given additional powers: to consider and investigate charges of police misconduct and make a finding to the chief of police about whether there had been misconduct; to advise the chief of police on police-community relations; to review the budget of the police department; and to hire necessary staff. -3- 1070 070 411 Proposal "3" also sets minimum qualifications for the chief of police: five years of training and experience in law enforcement, including three years of administration. Under Proposal "3, " if the police commission wanted to remove the chief of police, the chief would have to be given a statement of reasons and an opportunity to respond at a hearing before the police commission. The decision to remove the chief of police would remain within the sole discretion of the police commission. (Amends Charter Article VII, Chapter 2) *********************** ***************************************** Proposal "®4"e Proposal "4" would change some of the county's financial and IIIbudgeting procedures. If Proposal "4" is passed, the mayor could submit proposed operating and capital budgets to the county council by March 1 instead of the present deadline, May 1. The mayor could submit amendments to the budgets to the council within ten days of the close of the legislative session, but no later than May 5. The mayor would be required to explain and justify changes made in the amendments to the budgets. The public hearing on the budgets could be held after the March 1 submittal by the mayor. The mayor would be given ten calendar days to veto all or part of the operating budget as passed by the council, instead of -4- 1071 the ten working days given for a mayoral veto of other ordinances. During the fiscal year, the mayor would be required to notify the council of any transfer of funds within an agency or executive agency. (Amends Charter Sections. 10-2, 10- 3, 10-4, 10-5, 10-6, and 10-9) ***************************************************************** Proposal "5" Proposal "5" would expand the powers of the salary commission. At present, the salary commission sets the salaries of • members of the county council. The salary commission is appointed by the mayor, without council approval. The county council sets the salaries of the mayor and the prosecuting attorney. If Proposal "5" is passed, the salary commission would set the salaries of the mayor and the prosecuting attorney in addition to the salaries of the council. The salary commission would be appointed by the mayor, with confirmation by the council. (Amends Section 3-4 and repeals Sections 5-1.3 and 9-3 . ) ***************************************************************** • -5- 1072 Proposal 106" Proposal "6" would set minimum qualifications of five years of training and experience for the county finance director, managing director, and fire chief, and three years of training and experience for the deputy finance director. Proposal "6" would also set a minimum qualification for the planning director of five years training and experience, or a degree in a planning- related field and three years of training and experience. (Amends Section 13-3) **************************************************************** Proposal h7” Proposal "7" would clarify the procedures to fill vacancies in the county council or in the office of mayor. • If the vacancy occurred sixty days or more before the next regularly scheduled primary election, the deadline for filing as a candidate to fill the vacancy would be ten days after the vacancy occurred, or sixty days before the primary, whichever came later. If the vacancy occurred less than sixty days before the primary, the person appointed to fill the council vacancy in the interim would serve the entire unexpired term. In the case of the mayor's office, the managing director would serve the entire unexpired term. (Amends Sections 3-5 and 5-1.5) **************************************************************** • -6- 1073 • Proposal "8"® Proposal "8" would allow a member of a board or commission to remain on the board or commission for a maximum of thirty days if a new mayor took office less than thirty days before the member's term would otherwise expire. (Amends Section 13-4 (d) ) **************************************************************** Proposal "9" Proposal "9" would require the council to act to confirm or deny the mayor's appointment of a person to any board or commission within forty-five days, and to confirm or deny the mayor's appointment of a department head within sixty days. If the council did not act within the time period, the person would rbe deemed to be confirmed. Proposal "9" also specifies that the department heads take office upon appointment. (Adds a new subsection 13-4 (1) and amends Section 13-8) **************************************************************** Proposal "10" If Proposal "10" is passed, all legal notices which the charter now requires to be published in one newspaper of general circulation in the county would have to be published in at least two newspapers of general circulation in the county. • (Amends Sections 3-11(c) , 3-11(h) , 10-4, and 13-20 (c) ) **************************************************************** -7- 1074 • Proposal 111111 Proposal "11" would require that the positions of deputy managing director and deputy finance director be established and funded. (Amends Section 4-5(a) **************************************************************** Proposal "12" Proposal "12" changes some of the procedures for the recall of elected officials. If Proposal "12" is passed, the persons who are qualified to sign a recall petition would be defined as those who are registered to vote when the clerk began to count the signatures on the recall petition. Petition signers could use a mailing • o address. . The clerk would be given .additional time to count the signatures. • (Amends Sections 12-1. 1 to 12-1.5) **************************************************************** Proposal "13" Proposal "13" clarifies the number of votes needed for official action by boards and commissions and by the council, and defines "quorum. " If Proposal "13" is passed, official action by a board or commission would always require a majority of the entire membership to which the board or commission is entitled, unless the board or commission has only advisory functions. Advisory boards and commissions would require a-majority of those present. 411 -8- 1075 • • • A quorum for a board or commission would be a majority of the members to which it is entitled. For the council, the charter presently requires a majority vote of the entire membership for most official actions, with a one-third or two-thirds vote required for certain kinds of actions. Proposal "13" would make it clear that a majority is always five votes, one-third is always three votes, and two- thirds is always six votes, even if there are vacant positions on the council. (Amends Sections 13-4 (i) , 13-4 (j ) , and 3-8) **************************************************************** Proposal "14" Proposal "14" would require that the charter be revised so Sthat language which contained a male or female gender term (such as referring to the mayor as "he") be rewritten so that the language did not refer to a specific gender. **************************************************************** Proposal ""15" Proposal "15" would specifically authorize the charter commission to prepare the ballot language and ballot format for the amendments to the charter which the charter commission` proposes. - (Amends Section 15-3) **************************************************************** -9- 1076 Proposal "16" 41104 Proposal "16" would amend several sections of the charter which are inconsistent with state laws covering the same subject. If Proposal "16" is passed: -References to certain powers of the planning commission would .be deleted. The planning commission does not exercise those powers at present because they are inconsistent with state law. -The charter would state that the civil service commission should have five members, as provided in state law, instead of seven. -The maximum limit for non-advertised contracts would be raised from $4, 000 to $8, 000 to conform to state law, and 410 purchases between $1,000 and $8, 000, rather than between $500 and $4,000, would require competitive bidding. -The charter would give the mayor the power to. approve rules and regulations of agencies, as provided in state law, rather than the mayor and the council. (Amends Sections 5-4.3, 7-1.2, 10-14, and 13-7) • 410 -10- 1077