Sunnyvale council narrows charter-review workplan, punts ranked-choice voting to later study

Gustave Larsen, chair of the Charter Review Committee, presented the committee’s prioritized list of potential charter amendments and asked the City Council to “draw the line” on which items the committee should study further.

The council directed the committee to focus on five items for development into potential 2026 ballot measures: authorizing alternative project delivery (design‑build), raising or clarifying city manager settlement authority, revising vacancy/appointment rules for council seats, adjusting meeting frequency rules, and reviewing council salaries including a higher mayor salary level. Larsen told council the committee had recommended focusing on “four or maybe five, but certainly no more than that” to match the committee’s limited time and staff resources.

Why it matters: narrowing the list will determine which charter language the volunteer committee, with staff support, spends the remainder of 2025 researching, polling and drafting for potential voter consideration in November 2026. Committee and staff repeated concerns about ballot fatigue and costs (staff estimated roughly $180,000 per measure) if too many items go to the ballot.

Council members repeatedly urged caution on large or complex topics. Council member Richard Mellinger said operational items such as design‑build and settlement authority would have “clear operative positive operational impacts” and recommended those be prioritized for 2026. Several members — including Srinivasan, Lay and others — said ranked‑choice voting (RCV) raised additional timing, cost and voter‑education issues and recommended deferring it to a focused future study or to a later ballot (2028 was suggested). The committee chair and multiple council members also noted the county’s ongoing deliberations on ranked‑choice voting and urged a “wait and see” approach.

Public comment on the charter agenda item was extensive and sharply divided on alternative voting systems. Dozens of residents spoke; many urged the council to study or adopt ranked‑choice voting now, citing majority outcomes and reduced negative campaigning, while a vocal minority warned of complexity, recount difficulty, and insufficient candidate turnout to make RCV useful in Sunnyvale. Steve Chesson of Californians for Electoral Reform told the council that “ranked choice voting would ensure the winner had the support of a majority of voters, not just a plurality.” Opponents, including some longtime residents, urged the council to defer RCV and focus on increasing candidate participation and on more immediate operational items.

Council action and next steps: Council member Mellinger moved that the committee focus on five items for 2026 study (design‑build; settlement authority; vacancy provisions; meeting frequency; council and mayor compensation, including job descriptions outside the charter but no change to mayor powers). The motion passed 6‑0 (Council member Cisneros absent). The committee will use the direction to proceed; council and staff said final decisions about exact ballot language and which measures actually go forward will return to council later in the process.

The committee and staff told council that items not selected for 2026 could be handled later via a study issue, an ordinance, policy changes, or a future topic‑specific charter review committee. Staff also noted the committee’s recommendation that polling be used as part of outreach for items that were previously rejected by voters.

Ending: The council’s guidance narrows the committee’s immediate workload and pushes complex democratic‑procedure questions such as ranked‑choice voting to more focused future consideration, while placing operational governance and fiscal items at the top of the committee’s 2025 work plan.