Sunnyvale politicians are looking to update the city’s charter.
In a memo to their Sunnyvale City Council colleagues, Mayor Larry Klein and Council Members Alysa Cisneros and Richard Mehlinger implored them to support impaneling a charter review committee (CRC).
The last major update to Sunnyvale’s charter was in 2007, with minor adjustments in 2012 and 2018.
“Given that it has been more than 15 years since the full charter has been reviewed, and given the substantial changes introduced by the switch to district elections, we believe that empaneling a CRC to conduct a general review of the charter may be in order,” according to the memo.
However, before any major overhaul, the council has opted to put smaller changes on the ballot for voter approval.
The ballot measure proposes three changes to the charter. First, it will replace gendered language throughout the charter with gender-neutral language. Second, it will eliminate voter registration and citizenship requirements for serving on boards and commissions. Finally, it will change the requirements for the council calendar.
“The charter was adopted for voters, so the only way to change it is to go back to the voters,” said David Carnahan, Sunnyvale city clerk.
Since the charter names five boards and commissions — personnel board, planning commission, parks and recreation commission, library board and the heritage preservation commission — an amendment is required to alter the requirements to serve on them, Carnahan said.
The proposed change brings requirements for those five boards and commissions in line with the others not named in the charter, he added.
Klein said the changes, which he called “relatively innocuous,” will act as a sort of litmus test for voters’ desire to make more substantial changes to the charter.
“It was to implement the changes to items that we could do quickly as opposed to wait for two-and-half years,” Klein said.
The calendar allows more flexibility in scheduling meetings, Klein said.
The charter requires the council to meet twice a month. The proposed change would allow for 24 meetings a year so long as the council does not go more than six weeks without a meeting.
The memo’s signatories proposed examining other charter changes. Among those proposed changes is considering whether the mayor should be a full-time role and whether Sunnyvale should switch its voting method to another system, such as ranked-choice voting.
The full text of the ballot measure can be found here. Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
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