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Council sends package of charter cleanups to November ballot, excludes term-limits measure after debate
Summary
After a lengthy public and council discussion, Downey's City Council voted unanimously to place 34 technical and procedural charter amendments on the November 2026 ballot but to exclude the proposed change to term limits; the council also directed clerical corrections and minor wording changes and clarified vacancy/recall procedures.
The City Council received the Charter Review Ad Hoc Committee's report and voted to forward a consolidated package of proposed charter amendments to voters at the November 2026 statewide election, excluding the proposed change to term limits.
City Attorney Fung summarized the committee's work: 35 sections were reviewed and the committee recommended most amendments as technical or cleanup changes to modernize the charter and bring it into alignment with state law. Term limits (Section 500.1) was the sole substantive issue the committee did not finalize and was presented to the full council for debate.
Fung and staff emphasized the procedural nature of tonight's action: sending amendments to voters does not enact them; any amendment would take effect only if approved by a majority of voters. Fung also noted a typographical error in the redline version of section 12.11 that should read $75,000 (rather than $15,000) for a contract-bidding threshold.
Council members debated multiple options for term limits, including retaining the lifetime two-term (2 x 4-year) limit, allowing three terms, or adopting a consecutive-terms-with-cooling-off option. Mayor Sosa spoke for the status quo: "I believe that serving 2 4 year terms is sufficient," he said.
Councilmember Pemberton and others argued for giving voters a choice and pointed to the benefits of experienced officeholders for long-range projects; one councilmember highlighted the modest fiscal difference to place a second, stand-alone term-limits measure on the ballot (staff cited an approximately $26,000 additional printing/election cost for a separate June measure versus bundling in November).
The council voted unanimously to send the package of technical amendments to the November ballot while excluding proposed charter amendment number 2 (term limits). The council also directed staff to correct the $15,000/12.11 typo to $75,000 and to add the word "committees" where the charter referenced standing boards and commissions in sections 900, 902 and 903.
Fung said the amendments will be packaged into one omnibus measure and any term-limits change would be a separate, stand-alone question if the council later chooses to place it before voters.
