Elk Grove City Charter Commission Revises Previously Revised Proposed Charter

An audio recording of the first two hours of last nights meeting will be posted later

The Elk Grove City Charter Commission made revisions to the previously revised city charter at last nights regular meeting.

In the discussion leading up to revising portions of the charters, several commissioners said they felt obligated to present the city council with a document that they had believed in despite differences with the council. “We should give what we felt was right,” commissioner Juanita Sendejas-Lopez said.

“If you believe it, then keep it in,” commissioner Damon Mireski said of some of the charters more controversial aspects.

Among the major points the commission revised where provisions on how city council members are elected. Several members of the commission had advocated that city council members be elected “by” district versus “from” district.

In a “by” district election, council members are from a particular district and only voters in that district vote for the candidate. In a “from” district election, council members are from a particular district but voted for citywide.

In previous meetings council member had expressed their strong desire to maintain the current “from” district system in the proposed charter. Commissioner Jake Rambo strongly advocated this position noting federal voter protection cases regarding striking down “from” district situations in Southern states as well as the cost of running “from” district elections.

Another major section of the charter that was actually dropped in it’s entirely was the public works section. The section has been a sticking pint between several of the commissioners and labor unions that battled over the inclusion of living wages provision in the charter.

“Everything in six is too complicated. I think it should be dropped,” Rambo said.

After the commission agreed to drop the public works section, commissioner Rambo moved to have language inserted limited the city’s ability to levy taxes. The language said “The City shall not create, assess, or impose any fines, fees, or taxes other than in a manner consistent with the general law.”

Although the matter was tabled to the commission next meeting, City Attorney expressed doubt that the provision could be included as it was already covered by the state constitution.

Rambo selected as vice chair

The commission also filled the vacant vice chair position by selecting Jake Rambo. Rambo fills the position vacated by former commissioner Christopher Orrock who resigned from the commission in October.

Rambo also took the opportunity to rebut criticism he and fellow commissioners heard from city council member Jim Cooper at last weeks city council meeting regarding the commissions public outreach efforts and documentation of those efforts.

Rambo emphasized that commissioners were un-paid volunteers serving the community often at great personal expenses. “We worked our tail off,” Rambo said.

“At some point you really get tired of things lobbed at you, he added.

Although the meeting was sparsely attended, one member of the public did comment on the outreach efforts and lessons learned from the commissions experience.

Elk Grove resident Suzanne Pecci said whether it was 3,000 people claimed to have been contacted by commissioners or 397 contacts noted on recently released public documents, Pecci said that was far too few for a city the size of Elk Grove.

“you reached as mall portion of the population,” Pecci said.

Peeci did say the work of the current charter commission might be a build point for a future charter effort. “Maybe it should just sunset,” Pecci concluded.