Sunnyvale Charter Review Committee approves final report, endorses updated compensation, vacancy and contracting language

The Sunnyvale Charter Review Committee approved its final report Dec. 4 after a series of section-by-section votes that resolved wording, dates and dollar amounts for several proposed charter changes.

The committee’s decisions will be forwarded to the City Council as recommendations for what may appear on a future ballot and for companion ordinances. Chair Larson opened the meeting by describing the section-by-section process; Deputy City Manager Connie Rosales told the committee staff had compiled subcommittee work into a single document and tentatively planned a joint committee-council meeting in February to present the report.

Most of the evening’s work focused on four substantive reforms. First, the committee approved revised ballot language updating council and mayor compensation. Member Vickery moved to replace the 2012/2013 base-year and dollar amounts with new dates and figures; the motion, seconded by Member Davis, specified that the commission would insert 01/01/2027 as the commencement date and new salaries of $6,000 for council members and $9,000 for the mayor, with subsequent cost-of-living adjustments tied to CPI-U indexing. Committee members also agreed to clarify the CPI…