The Charter Review Committee considered a subcommittee recommendation on the city’s regular meeting schedule and discussed whether charter language or a council resolution is the best tool to address operational scheduling problems.

Member Vickery, the subcommittee drafter, explained the report was written as a subcommittee report to the full committee and said it could be reformatted as a committee recommendation to City Council. He suggested removing the word “unanimously” from the subcommittee draft because the vote included absences and recommended softening a sentence that called the current charter language “clear and does not need explanation.”

Connie Bersellas, deputy city manager, told the committee staff is preparing a report for City Council that would ask the council to adopt a resolution scheduling regular council meetings on second and fourth Tuesdays (with exceptions for holidays), an administrative approach staff said could reduce repeated back‑to‑back meeting scheduling and associated staff burdens. Bersellas said the proposal was not yet final and would be an item to council on Nov. 4.

Members discussed whether the committee’s report to council should include supplemental exhibits showing calendar examples and several members suggested short edits for accuracy in an attached comparison of other Bay Area meeting schedules (for example, an attached chart listed Sunnyvale as five council members and should read seven). Member comments asked staff to adjust an attachment’s wording for the “annual consolidated” financial report to avoid use of an older term.

Public commenters encouraged the committee to include visual calendar examples. One commenter urged the committee to avoid jargon and to prepare clear explanatory materials for voters if charter language were to go to the ballot.

The committee did not change the substance of the subcommittee recommendation at the meeting. A procedural straw poll on a staff proposal generated broad support: the chair called for a hand vote on staff’s proposed approach and reported all but one raised hands in favor; no abstentions were recorded. Members asked staff and the subcommittee to submit revised draft language and any exhibits for the committee’s November and December deadlines so the combined report to council can be prepared on schedule.

Staff advised the committee that, regardless of the committee’s final recommendation, a council resolution could address many of the operational issues raised by Section 6.11 without a charter amendment.