Charter Review 2013/08/29ANAHEIM CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE
MINUTES
Thursday, August 29, 2013
6:00 p.m.
Anaheim City Council Chambers
200 Anaheim Blvd, Anaheim 92805
The meeting notice, agenda and related materials were duly posted on August 26, 2013.
PRESENT: Chair, Todd Ament; Committee Members: Tom Dunn, Amanda Edinger, Craig
Farrow, Ernesto Medrano, Gloria Ma'ae, Keith Olesen.
STAFF: City Manager's Office: Paul Emery, Assistant City Manager and Margie Otto, Senior
Analyst; Linda Andal, City Clerk; Michael Houston, City Attorney; and Raphael Sonenshein,
Consultant
1. Call meeting to order. The meeting of the Charter Review Committee of August 29,
2013 was called to order at 6:02 p.m. in the Council Chambers of Anaheim City Hall
located at 200 S. Anaheim Blvd..
2. Public Comments.
Ron Bengochea encouraged citizens to get involved with the city and asked that power not be
taken away from the residents.
3. Identification of Charter issues for Committee deliberation (continued from
August 22, 2013 meeting)
Raphael Sonenshein facilitated discussion on the remainder of the charter sections continued
from the previous committee meeting. The committee discussed and placed the following
charter sections on the calendar for review: Article IX - Appointive Boards and Commissions,
specifically, as requested by Council Member Brandman, to standardize boards and
commissions. Additionally, as requested by staff, review the powers and duties of the Library
Board, Section 908 and include the Public Utilities Board to the Charter. Mr. Sonenshein
reminded the committee that if a board or commission was not named in the Charter, it did not
cease to exist and that if it were in the Charter, it could only be removed by a vote of the people.
Discussion ensued and the following sections were added to the calendar for discussion: Article
XII, specifically Sections 1202, 1204, 1205, 1210 (3r paragraph), 1219, and 1221. Member
Olesen suggested reviewing Article XII in its entirety and during such time, the committee could
review specific sections as needed. Article XIV, Franchises, was also added to the calendar at
the request of the Finance Department.
Meeting of the Charter Review Committee
August 29, 2013
Page 2 of 3
4. Calendaring Charter issues for Committee deliberation.
Mr. Sonenshein suggested the committee reserve October for the more challenging items, the
early months (September) for the easier items, and the later months to finish the tougher
carryover items from October, as well as final clean up and to compile the sections. Mr.
Sonenshein added that based on the committee's direction, staff would return with charter
language for the committee to review and edit; the committee would not be asked to draft
language. Discussion regarding calendaring ensued and Chair Ament offered October 17 to
begin discussion on the various sections of 500. Member Edinger suggested going over Article
V on September 26 Member Ma'ae shared that as a former member of the Citizen's Advisory
Committee for Elections (CAC), the CAC had already discussed and recommended to Council
the size of council and method in which council was elected and therefore motioned to not
discuss section 500 relating to the size of Council and the method in which Council was elected,
seconded by Member Edinger. Member Dunn expressed his disagreement commenting that he
felt the Charter Committee was commissioned to review the entire charter, regardless of
whether a section was reviewed by another committee. Member Olesen, a former member of
the CAC, agreed with Member Dunn's position sharing that the Charter review process should
be separate from other CAC. Member Medrano also commented that he did not wish to carve
out sections, rather review the charter as a whole. The motion was called to a vote (AYES - 4
(Chair Ament, Committee Members: Ma'ae, Edinger, Farrow); NOES - 3 (Committee Members:
Dunn, Medrano, Olesen). Motion approved.
The committee continued discussion on the charter sections and scheduled topics for future
meetings: September 5 — i) housekeeping items such as, clean -up the charter language and
gender neutrality, ii) deliberation on potential obsolete provisions, including sections 402, 517,
601; September 26 — Article V, City Council, all sections except Section 500); October 17 —
continue Article V, Article VI (City Manager), and Article IX (Appointive Boards and
Commissions); October 24 — Article VII (Officers and Employees), Article XII (Fiscal
Administration), and Article XIV (Franchises); November 7 - continued Article VII and XII, if
necessary; and November 21 - prepare preamble, draft Charter amendments, and draft
recommendation report.
5. Committee comments / Staff comments.
City Attorney, Michael Houston provided a brief PowerPoint presentation in response to
Member Dunn's previous request relating to the cost of maintaining the prosecution division.
At the request of the public, Chair Ament re- opened public comments. Resident, Ron
Bengochea suggested the committee not enter future meetings with the idea that they will
adjourn meetings by a specific time advising that citizen comments could extend the meeting.
Meeting of the Charter Review Committee
August 29, 2013
Page 3 of 3
6. Adjournment. At 7:41 P.M. Chair Ament adjourned the meeting to September 5th, at
6:00 p.m., Anaheim Council Chambers.
sp ctfully submitted,
Linda N. Andal, CIVIC
City Clerk