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Seaside council approves broad rewrite of municipal code on boards, commissions and procedures
Summary
After months of review, the Seaside City Council approved first-reading amendments to Title 2 of the municipal code that reorganize rules for boards and commissions, clarify mayor/city-manager powers and add a temporary leave-of-absence rule for commissioners who run for council.
The Seaside City Council on Thursday approved the first reading of an ordinance that overhauls Title 2 of the city’s municipal code, a staff-led cleanup and reorganization that standardizes procedures for city boards and commissions, clarifies the roles of the city manager and city attorney, and spells out rules for appointment, removal and succession of commission officers.
City Clerk Dominique Davis, who led the presentation, told the council the package corrects typographical errors, reorganizes sections for consistency and updates procedural language to align with state law. “The primary purpose of these amendments is to improve clarity, efficiency and legal compliance within Title 2,” Davis said during the hearing.
The ordinance packages numerous changes into a single first-reading vote. Key changes the council debated include: a requirement that a commissioner generally serve at least one year before becoming chair (a succession practice modeled on the Community Safety Advisory Commission); a clarification that a quorum is calculated from appointed seats rather than the total number of authorized seats, allowing smaller commissions to meet; and a standard 3-consecutive-unexcused-meetings process that can lead to removal recommendations for commissioners who do not attend.
The most contested change would have required commissioners who become candidates for the Seaside City Council to resign immediately. After public comment and council discussion, members amended that language: the final ordinance substitutes an automatic leave of absence from the commission from the date a commissioner becomes a qualified candidate until the election results are certified. Council members said that compromise was meant to avoid the perception of incumbency advantage while not forcing volunteers to forfeit a seat prematurely.
Several commissioners and civic volunteers spoke during public comment. Shonda Labeth, a member of the Neighborhood Improvement Commission, said she and other commissioners routinely serve the city in volunteer roles and objected to a blanket resignation requirement. Bobby Maxwell, chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission, argued experience and continuity matter: “Experience and wisdom go a long way,” he said, urging the council not to limit community members’ political involvement.
Council members also debated whether the requirement that chairs have served as vice chair before taking the top role should remain mandatory. Several council members, and some commission chairs who testified, said commissions should retain discretion to elect their own officers if a vice chair is unwilling or unable to step into the chair role.
The council approved the ordinance in a roll-call first-reading vote and directed staff to return the final ordinance with the edits discussed. The changes were presented as exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3), because they are procedural and not expected to affect the physical environment.
What happens next: the ordinance will return for a second reading and final adoption at a later meeting, after staff integrates the clarifying language the council directed.
Speakers during the item included City Clerk Dominique Davis; City Attorney Sherry Damon; Councilmembers Ian Olsby (mayor), Pacheco (mayor pro tem), Miller and Garcia Arizola; and public commenters including Shonda Labeth and Bobby Maxwell.
