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ft City of Huntington Beach
File #: 19-198 MEETING DATE: 2/19/2019
REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
SUBMITTED TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
SUBMITTED BY: Fred A. Wilson, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Antonia Graham, Assistant to the City Manager
Subject:
City Charter Review Options
Statement of Issue:
On January 22, 2019, City Council Member, Mike Posey, introduced a Council Member Item
requesting that the City Manager convene a Charter Review Commission. This item provides City
Council with options to move the item forward.
Financial Impact:
No fiscal impact anticipated.
Recommended Action:
It is recommended that the City Council direct the City Manager to either:
1 . Convene the Charter Review Commission with appointed members as outlined in the Council
Member item; or
-2. Convene an Ad Hoc Committee comprised of three Council Members, the City Manager, and
the City Attorney to analyze and determine if any changes are needed to the City Charter.
Alternative Action(s):
Do not move forward with either aforementioned actions or direct staff accordingly.
Analysis:
At the January 22, 2019, City Council Meeting, City Council Member, Mike Posey, introduced a
Council Member Item that requested that the City Manager convene a Charter Review Commission
and retain the services of a Charter Review Consultant. This would be similar to the last Charter
review process in 2009 when a fifteen (15) member Commission met eleven (11) times from July 22,
2009, to March 25, 2010; each meeting focused on a different section of the Charter.
Dr. Raphe Sonenshein was hired to facilitate the review process and serve as a Charter expert. The
City spent approximately $25,000 for his services, in addition to many hours of staff time that were
spent on this review in support of the Commission. Dr. Sonenshein did not suggest Charter
City of Huntington Beach Page 1 of 2 Printed on 2/13/2019
File #: 19-198 MEETING DATE: 2/19/2019
amendments, but simply facilitated a process whereby members and staff, in collaboration with the
City Attorney, discussed suggested changes. On April 19, 2010, after almost one year of review and
deliberation, the Commission presented their recommended adjustments to the Charter, which were
then discussed by the City Council. Council action was subsequently taken to authorize placement
on the November 2010 ballot.
Option
Recognizing current and future budgetary concerns and limited staff resources, another option to
consider is to convene an Ad Hoc Committee to analyze and discuss any proposed changes to the
City Charter. The Committee would review the current Charter and identify any potential sections that
may need to be updated/reviewed to ensure that the Charter is up to date. It is estimated that this
would take approximately 120 days and would have minimal costs and less staff time. As the last
Charter review process was extensive and involved a year of deliberations, it is anticipated that a
more streamlined review may be more appropriate for this review period. All recommendations
would be brought to City Council for review and discussion.
Environmental Status:
There is no environmental impact.
Strategic Plan Goal:
Enhance and Maintain City Service Delivery
Attachment(s):
1. Council Member Posey Item 1/22/19 - Formation of a Charter Review Commission
City of Huntington Beach Page 2 of 2 Printed on 2/13/2019
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CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH
9...; . City Council Interoffice Communication
To: Honorable Mayor and City Council e ers
From: Mike Posey, City Council Member
Date: January 2, 2019
Subject: CITY COUNCIL MEMBER ITEM FOR THE JANUARY 22, 2019,
CITY COUNCIL MEETING — FORMATION OF A CHARTER
REVIEW COMMISSION
STATEMENT OF ISSUE:
Section 804 of the City Charter states that the City Council shall determine if there is a need to
convene a citizen's Charter Review Commission to conduct a review of the City Charter no less
than every ten years. On April 20, 2009, the City Council voted to convene a Charter Review
Commission comprised of 15 members. It has been nearly ten years since the last Charter
Review Commission was convened and the time has come to reconvene the Commission to
review the potential update of the City's Charter,
Noted City Charter expert, Dr. Sonenshein, was retained to guide the Commission through the
2009 review process. The Commission meetings were publicly noticed and open to the public
for comment. The Commission met for a year. Their final report was presented to the City
Council in April 2009, and their Charter recommendations were approved via Resolution No.
2010-41 on June 7, 2010. Once their recommendations were received and approved by the
City Council, the Commission was formally dissolved by Council action on June 21, 2010. The
Commission primarily recommended language changes to the Charter and technical
amendments that amended current election processes and included certain changes to the farm
of government.
It would be prudent for the City Council to convene a new Charter Review Commission as it has
been ten years since the last review and the Commission will take nearly a year to study and
present their recommendations to City Council on any proposed changes/updates. The
proposed changes to the Charter were ratified by the voters on November 2, 2010 and were
filed with the Secretary of State on January 6, 2011.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Direct the City Manager to:
1. Convene the Charter Review Commission to be made up of 15 members--7 appointed
individually by each of the City Council Members and 8 to be appointed by the City
Council as a whole; and
2. Retain the services of a Charter Review Consultant to assist the Commission and staff in
the review of the Charter.
xc: Fred A.Wilson, City Manager
Lori Ann Farrell Harrison,Assistant City Manager
Robin Estanislau,City Clerk
Michael Gates,City Attorney
163
Esparza, Patty
From: Dombo, Johanna
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2019 3:08 PM
To: Agenda Comment
Cc: Fikes, Cathy; CITY COUNCIL
Subject: FW: In Support of City Attorney Michael Gates
AGENDA COMMENT
From:Sherry Daniels<sherryd628@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2019 2:55 PM
To:CITY COUNCIL<city.council@surfcity-hb.org>
Subject: In Support of City Attorney Michael Gates
I am a long time resident of Huntington Beach, and I am writing to you to express my,
and my family's, complete support for our ELECTED City Attorney, Mr. Michael Gates,
and have complete faith in his advice to leave the city charter alone so that he can
continue to represent our city as he sees fit. As I watch the city council meetings, I am
angered by council members Posey, Delgleize, Brendan and Carr, who do not appear to
be representing the best interests of the HB residents, but rather the PACs and
developers, whose donations helped get them elected. Mr. Gates has stated many times,
he needs the charter to remain as broad as possible, in order to defend our city against
the state's lawsuits. He is advising to leave the city charter alone, yet these council
members have to keep pushing and pushing that the charter needs to be reviewed. I
sense there are ulterior motives for these council members to want to review and then
change the charter, and they are not looking out for the best interests of the HB
residents, but rather themselves.
Mr. Gates has a proven track record of successfully defending our city and is preparing
for future lawsuits, which seem inevitable. It also seems blaringly obvious that the only
reason to review the charter, is so those council members who do not support Mr.
Gates, have motives to change the city attorney position from elected to appointed, so
that they will have someone at their beck and call. This position MUST remain an elected
position, as he, and ALL councilmembers remain accountable to the residents of
Huntington Beach, and not entrenched like the appointed positions become (i.e. city
manager).
Sincerely,
Sherry Daniels
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