Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Government Operations topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council introduces ordinance to rename Administrative Services to Finance and move HR under city manager
Summary
Council introduced for first reading an ordinance aligning the municipal code with a recent organizational realignment: human resources will move into the city manager's office (as a division) and Administrative Services will be renamed Department of Finance; council approved first‑reading votes and scheduled a second reading for May 19.
The Cupertino City Council on Tuesday introduced and conducted the first reading of an ordinance to update several municipal code sections to reflect a recent internal reorganization.
City Manager (unnamed) told the council the proposal is administrative in nature: the human resources division will transition to the city manager’s office (as a division) while the former Administrative Services Department will be refocused and renamed the Department of Finance, concentrating on accounting, budgeting and purchasing. Jonathan Orozco, acting director of Administrative Services (introduced by staff), explained that the changes align department names and roles with current operations and do not create new executive‑level positions.
Deputy City Manager Kirsten Squashaw walked the council through specific updates: modernizing special meeting notice language (removing obsolete delivery methods), conforming public‑works project definitions with state law, updating flood damage prevention to match FEMA studies and increasing the maximum bingo prize cap to $500 per game to conform with state law. The council asked clarifying questions about the HR transition, staff counts moving into the city manager’s office, and whether the renaming creates new department heads; staff confirmed the changes alter reporting and not executive headcount, and provided FTE figures for the affected offices.
A substantive redline question arose when staff proposed removing a clause that had prohibited sales on private land abutting a public street where traffic flow might be affected. Vice Mayor Chao asked whether the change would unintentionally permit commercial vending (for example, a food truck on someone’s lawn), possibly creating traffic impacts. Ben Foutif, director of community development, explained the intent: the struck language was subjective and hard to enforce; the change is not meant to remove existing permitting requirements for mobile vending or sidewalk vending. He said ordinary sales on private property (for example, a lemonade stand on private property) remain allowable where zoning and business‑license rules permit.
Council moved the ordinance for first reading and the roll‑call vote passed unanimously; staff will return for second reading and adoption on May 19 and said it will bring updates to employee policy language and compensation program references tied to the departmental name change.
Next steps: staff will return on May 19 for second reading and adoption and will bring related personnel policy updates.
