Charter Review, Post 9

Continuing to focus on how the current charter but that might warrant consideration by the new commission, and what the last charter review determined. To view the entire current city charter go to: https://www.ci.pomona.ca.us/mm/cityhall/pdf/city_charter.pdf.

You can also view the 2010 proposed charter amendments at: http://www.johncliffordgraphics.com/ftp/Final_Report5-26-11.pdf

Article XIV - Municipal Campaign Financing and Conflict of Interest

Section 1401 is a voluntary campaign expenditure ceiling. It notes that Cal. Government Code is that campaign expenditures shall not exceed 25 cents per resident of the district in which the candidate is running and shall apply to each election, and that it will be increased by 25% of any state statue changes.

1402 explains how surplus campaign funds are dealt with. Specifically it states:

All funds that exceed election campaign expenses for public office, or the repayment of campaign loans, or expense as specified in California Government Code Sections 89519(a) and 85305(c) [Government Code §§ 89519(a) and 85305(c)] or any successor statutes, known as "surplus campaign funds" or "surplus funds," shall be turned over to the City's General Fund within ninety (90) days after withdrawal, defeat, or election to office.

This provision has been somewhat controversial as it doesn’t really allow a “carry-over” for the next campaign but specifies that surplus campaign funds “shall” be turned over to the city’s General Fund. This is one of those provisions which seems to not be the case and is not being enforced by the city.

1403 goes over conflicts of interest. It says that a councilmember “shall not cast a vote on any matter relating to any person or business entity that has contributed more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250) to all said Councilmember's City election campaigns for the current term. The vote of any Councilmember violating the above shall be invalid.” The 2010 charter commission asked to have the $250 amount raised to the $500 amount as in state code and wanted to limit that donor limit to the previous 12 months rather than the entire current term of office. However, this was defeated by the voters so presently the $250 limit is still in effect. To the best of my knowledge, this has been a little noted provision and I haven’t really seen too many recusals for items coming up where over $250 in funding was given.

Article XV - Definitions and Miscellaneous

This article specifies certain definitions to clarify what is meant in charter language.

They are:

a)      “Shall" is mandatory and "may" is permissive.

b)      "City" is the City of Pomona and "office," "department," "board," "commission," "officer," "department head" or "employee" is an office, department, board, commission, officer, department head or employee as the case may be, of the City of Pomona.

c)      "County" is the County of Los Angeles.

d)      "State" is the State of California.

e)      "Federal" is the United States of America.

f)       "Agency" or "agencies of the City" shall not include the Redevelopment Agency or the Pomona Public Financing Authority.

Note that “Shall” is mandatory. So anything that says “Shall” must be done and is not to be read as something that can be “interpreted” except as mandatory.

1502 concerns what happens if someone violates these provisions. This includes prosecution in the name of the People of California or by civil action.

Article XVI - Charter Amendment

This article covers how amendments can be made to the charter. There are three ways the charter can be changed (placed the ballot for a vote of the people). a) by city voters as an initiative (requires signature collection), b) by ordinance of the city council containing the full text of the proposed amendment and then passed by 5/7 of the total membership of the council, or c) by report of the Charter Commission created in Article XVII.

1602-3 cover elections—governed by Cal. Elections Code, and Adoption of an amendment which will take a simple majority of the4 voters and will become effective at the time in the amendment or 30 days after its adoption by voters.

Article XVII - Charter Commission

The current charter reads thus:

Sec. 1701. - Charter Commission.

Beginning in January of the year 2010, and in January of every tenth year thereafter, the Council shall appoint a Commission to consider and propose amendments to the existing Charter. No later than twelve (12) months from each inception, the Commission shall submit its proposals to the City Clerk for placement on the ballot at the next scheduled election.

This short concise paragraph was expanded to 4 additional sections covering specifying how the commission shall be constituted, the composition of the members, staff and counsel for the commission, and a violations section.

At the beginning of the commission in 2010, the commission was informed that they would only have 2 staff members present (city clerk to act as secretary and take minutes, assistant city manager for assistance). We felt that we needed to have a representative of the city attorney present since we were basically “writing law” but were informed that there was no budget for that and so we would not have legal counsel to help us through the work. The 2010 commission felt that it was incumbent to clarify all of these issues within the charter and added them as a charter amendment. As stated previously, all of the suggestions were voted down by the voters in 2012.

NEXT TIME: Another look at the 2020 Charter Review Commission Process