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El Segundo council directs staff to start work exploring charter city conversion
Summary
After a lengthy discussion of trade‑offs, the council gave staff consensus to begin preparing documents and public hearings to explore changing El Segundo from a general law city to a charter city, a change that would require voter approval and further public review.
The El Segundo City Council gave staff direction to begin the process of studying whether the city should convert from a general law city to a charter city, a move that would require ballot approval and additional public hearings.
City Attorney (S11) told the council that charter cities draft their own rules and that any change would have to be placed before voters at a municipal election. He said the city’s next general municipal election is in November and estimated the county registrar fee to put a question on the ballot at roughly $2,000, plus additional legal and staff costs. “This is a policy call for the council,” he said, urging members to decide whether they wanted staff to prepare documents and the schedule to meet statutory timelines.
Supporters on the dais framed the conversion as an “insurance policy” that would give the city more local flexibility if the state later restored authority in areas such as zoning. Mayor Pimentel (S1) said the move would not automatically change how the city operates but would preserve options should state preemption change. A council member who supported beginning the process said a short charter or limited charter commission could preserve existing practices while protecting local control.
Opponents and skeptics warned of potential unintended consequences, including the risk of future ballot propositions changing local rules. The city attorney walked the council through two basic options — a short charter that largely adopts existing rules, or a lengthy charter drafted by a commission — and cautioned that lengthy charters can be time consuming and costly.
Council members asked procedural questions about timing and ballot language. The city attorney advised that initiating the work now would allow the city time for public hearings and community outreach, noting there would be additional hearings before any final placement on a ballot. The council registered consensus to have staff prepare draft documents and schedule the required hearings, with the understanding that a later council decision would be needed to place any charter question before voters.
Next steps: staff will prepare draft materials and a public hearing schedule for future council meetings; no ballot measure has been placed on the ballot yet.
