REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Approve Amendment to Exhibit A to Resolution 1234-24 (Resolution Calling a General Municipal Election) to Correct Clerical Errors in Proposed City Charter Amendments
Report
BACKGROUND
On May 7, 2024, the City Council adopted Resolution 1234-24 (Attachment 1), calling a special election to place a measure on the November 5, 2024 ballot to amend the Sunnyvale City Charter to remove the registered voter requirement from all boards and commissions, require twenty-four regular City Council meetings per year instead of two per month, and replace gendered language with gender neutral language throughout the Charter.
EXISTING POLICY
Elections Code Article 3 (City or City and County Charters)
Sunnyvale City Charter
Council Policy 7.3.4 (Roles and Responsibilities of Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilmembers)
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The action being considered does not constitute a "project" within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15320,15378 and 15061(b)(3) as it is an organizational structure change and does not have the potential to result in either a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
DISCUSSION
Exhibit A to Resolution 1234-24 shows the proposed amendments to the City Charter in redline/strikeout format. Following City Council approval of that Resolution, staff was alerted to missing strikeout text in the "elector" clause in Section 1005. The Registrar of Voters also requested that the Resolution be revised to include the words "Full Text Starts Here" and "Full Text Ends Here" at the beginning and end. During the process of making these revisions, four additional instances of gendered language were found in the Charter that have been added to the amendments in Exhibit A. Staff believes that these were overlooked because of over-reliance on keyword search results from the online version of the Charter, instead of working from a fu...
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