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City attorney tells finance committee budget cannot itself change charter or code; budget and code changes are separate steps
Summary
City Attorney Mike Liles told the finance committee that a budget cannot unilaterally change the municipal code or city charter; the committee can fund an initiative in the budget but must follow ordinance/charter amendment procedures to change reporting lines for offices such as the city attorney or harbor master.
The city attorney told the Finance Standing Committee May 8 that a municipal budget cannot itself alter the city code or charter and that the council must pursue separate legislative or charter-amendment steps to change legal reporting lines.
Mike Liles, the city attorney, addressed several questions from committee members about proposed FY26 budget moves that would place programs or offices under different managers. Liles said the office of law is a charter-established function and that a change to move city-attorney reporting lines or to alter a charter-defined office would require a charter amendment using the statutory procedure. He explained that code-level reorganizations (for example, moving a harbor-master function established in code) require a code amendment, and that the budget can create a spending priority but does not itself effectuate a change in code or charter.
Liles told the committee that it is possible to fund an activity in one fiscal year and then move to change the code or charter to match the funding in a subsequent step; he said either order is possible but both steps are required to make an operational and legally consistent change. Committee members said they intend to sponsor ordinances or charter amendments where appropriate rather than use the budget as the sole mechanism for reorganizing reporting lines.
Ending: Committee members recorded the attorney’s guidance and instructed staff to prepare any required ordinance or charter language if they proceed with funding realignments that depend on code or charter changes.
