During a joint meeting of the Long Beach City Council and the Long Beach Charter Amendment Committee, Mayor Robert Garcia and City Auditor Laura Doud presented five proposed charter amendments they hope to get on the November ballot.
“I’ve joined with City Auditor Laura Doud in supporting these measures because they are smart reforms, common in other large cities, and will make our government more effective and efficient,” Garcia told the Business Journal following the hearing.
State law requires that three public hearings be held over a 60-day period prior to any decision being made to place city charter amendments on a ballot and that a majority of voters must approve them. The next charter amendment hearings are scheduled for July 17 and August 7. During these meetings, updated information will be presented, public comment will be heard and changes to the proposed amendments will be made. At the final hearing, the city council will decide whether to put one, some or all of the proposed charter amendments on the November ballot, according to City Attorney Charles Parkin.
If placed on the ballot and approved by voters, the five amendments would: allow for the mayor and city councilmembers to serve three terms rather than two, and eliminate the term-limits loophole for write-in candidates; create a citizens redistricting commission that would redraw city council districts every 10 years, with the first new map being adopted before the end of 2021; authorize the city auditor to conduct performance audits of city departments, boards, commissions and offices; consolidate the water and gas departments under a newly formed Utilities Commission; and establish an ethics commission comprised of Long Beach residents to monitor, administer and enforce governmental ethics laws in the city.
“In regard to the city auditor authority charter amendment, this change is needed to update 110-year-old, obsolete language. [It] will make it explicit and accurately reflect the performance audit services that we’ve been providing for decades,” Doud told the Business Journal. “We also want to make it explicit in the charter that we are authorized to examine all city records – unless restricted by law – that are necessary to conduct honest and thorough audits.”
Doud explained that the city auditor amendment would bring Long Beach more in line with the auditing profession’s standards and best practices, as well as those of other major California cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento. She added that she fully supports all five charter amendments, as they would provide transparency and accountability in the city government.
Garcia stated that the redistricting commission is especially important to him, as city councilmembers should not be drawing their own districts. He added that the goal is to ensure the city’s diverse communities are represented fairly and that he hopes commission applicants will be selected at random, as opposed to being selected by the mayor, similar to the City of Los Angeles system.
More than 40 minutes of the one-hour hearing were dedicated to public comment during which there was some dissent but mostly support. However, many supporters shared concerns about the phrasing and vagueness of some of the amendments. Garcia assured members of the audience that he looks forward to working with residents and advocate groups to hash out the finer details of the proposals, a sentiment echoed by several councilmembers, including Vice Mayor Rex Richardson.
“I just wanted to let the public know, I hear you. We’re not just a rubber stamp,” Richardson said during the hearing. “This is an exciting process, I believe, to make our city work better and we want you to engage in that process.”
Business Journal Publisher George Economides said that, with one exception, he could support the amendents. That exception: a third term for the mayor and city councilmembers.
“If the recommendation is that current elected officials would be able to serve a third term, then voters will view it as self-serving and defeat it, and in fact could cause all five amendments to lose,” he said. “There are a lot of talented, smart people who live in Long Beach who don’t run because it’s extremely difficult and costly to go up against an incumbent. Leadership change is good, bringing new ideas is good.”
He added, “Remember, if your constituents like the job you’re doing and want to keep you around a third term or longer, you can run as a write-in.”