{"id":241655,"date":"2026-03-29T03:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T03:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/241655\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T03:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T03:18:13","slug":"charter-review-committee-biggest-recommendation-is-charter-reorganization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/241655\/","title":{"rendered":"Charter Review Committee: Biggest Recommendation is Charter Reorganization"},"content":{"rendered":"

At its Feb. 18 meeting, the Santa Clara Charter Review Committee heard subcommittee recommendations for changes and considered a proposed comprehensive reorganization of the city\u2019s 1951 charter.\u00a0 In its deliberations, the committee is also studying similar charter revisions in Sunnyvale<\/a> and Mountain View.<\/p>\n

The committee discussed the best way to present proposed changes \u2014 in several ballot measures or a single one, with a goal of a ballot measure(s) for the 2026 election. Committee members also discussed four categories for considering proposed changes.<\/p>\n

The first are form and appearance changes \u2014 for example, corrections, eliminating redundancy and clearer headings.<\/p>\n

SPONSORED<\/p>\n

\"BrainShare\"BrainShare<\/a><\/p>\n

The second level is rewrites, deletions and additions \u2014 for example, changing the annual budget to a two-year budget, which is current practice and generally considered a best practice for municipal government.<\/p>\n

Changes in policy or procedure that may be important enough to merit a separate ballot measure would be level 3 changes\u2014for example, allowable uses and disposition of city-owned land.<\/p>\n

SPONSORED<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Level 4 changes would be \u201cpossible changes to the charter that are either too complicated or too significant to have been fully analyzed,\u201d City Attorney Glen Googins explained, \u201cor appropriate for consideration as part of this charter update project, but are worthy of further study and consideration in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going forward, the committee will likely be meeting more frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really digging in now, we\u2019re making good progress,\u201d said Googins. \u201cBut there\u2019s almost certainly going to be a rush and a need for additional meetings for this group in order to meet that [the planned] timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subcommittee 2 (City Council) reported on its discussions so far. Council salaries will continue to be set by the Elected Officials Salary Setting Committee, but the committee is considering whether council members should be eligible for medical insurance. (Council is already allowed to participate in the city\u2019s pension system.)<\/p>\n

It also recommended changing the two meetings\/month requirement to 24 meetings\/year, with at least one per month, and clarifying the definition of \u201cquorum.\u201d (There are different quorum requirements for different council actions that sometimes confuse even council members themselves.) The subcommittee agreed that the charter should specify council duties and conduct, and best practices for declaring and filling council vacancies.<\/p>\n

Subcommittee 4 (Boards and Commissions) will recommend explicit requirements for staff support for city commissions and boards, vacancy definitions consistent with those for elected officials, and disallowing board and committee closed session meetings. Apparently, the group discussed at length whether commissioners should only be removed or denied second terms <\/a>for a publicly stated cause \u2014 effectively guaranteeing commissioners 8-year terms \u2014 and adding an ethics commission to the charter.<\/p>\n

Subcommittee 6 (Fiscal Administration and Public Works) recommended changing budgeting provisions to conform to the city\u2019s current biennial budget; adding electronic publication for city public notices and extending public review time. The subcommittee also considered changes to reserve requirements, the requirement for five council votes for budget amendments, changing the $1,000 threshold for council-approved projects and allowing design-build procurement \u2014\u00a0design and construction contracted to a single entity.<\/p>\n

Googins proposed a charter reorganization to consolidate \u2014\u00a0for example, several sections talk about the city council, making it difficult to find specific rules about council elections and operations. The reorganization would also include cross-references to city code and history of relevant changes. [Proposed charter reorganization 2026.pdf]<\/p>\n

Committee Member Burt Field was absent, while members Lauren Diamond and Jose Sinski attended remotely. Member Mohamed Naveed observed the meeting remotely, but didn\u2019t participate. The committee will present its work to date to the city council in the near future.<\/p>\n

Watch the meeting at tinyurl.com\/chaterreviewfeb26<\/a>. Find agendas for the Santa Clara City Charter committee\u2019s meetings at https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/sccharterreview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carolyn Schuk can be reached at carolyn@santaclaraweekly.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Previous Santa Clara Charter Review Posts:
Charter Review Committee Digs Into Charter Details<\/a>
Charter Review Subcommittees Raise Transparency Concerns<\/a>
Santa Clara 2025 Charter Review Committee Gets to Work<\/a><\/p>\n

SPONSORED<\/p>\n

\"SiliconValleyVoice_Ad2\"\"SiliconValleyVoice_Ad2\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At its Feb. 18 meeting, the Santa Clara Charter Review Committee heard subcommittee recommendations for changes and considered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[37332,6036,88,90,89,197,2921,2922],"class_list":["post-241655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-2025-charter-review-committee","tag-bay-area-news","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara","tag-santa-clara-weekly","tag-silicon-valley-voice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}