Los Gatos Town Council to move revised council and commissioner codes of conduct to consent calendar after study session

Los Gatos Town — The Los Gatos Town Council spent a special study session reviewing major revisions to its council code of conduct and a new commissioner code of conduct and directed staff to return revised drafts on a future consent calendar for formal adoption.

The session included two public commenters and extended discussion about three areas: whether civility rules should carry enforcement, how commissioners may represent the town externally, and how complaints against commissioners will be handled. "There will be no bans on so‑called hate speech, slander, booing, or clapping," public commenter Jeffrey Blum told the council, urging that civility language remain a non‑enforceable value statement that "encourages respectful discourse without restricting lawful speech."

Town Clerk Wendy Wood and Town Manager Constantine told the council the draft separates civility language from the council code and proposes putting procedural rules about meeting decorum into the agenda format and rules policy. Wood said the drafts would simplify enforcement by requiring documented complaint intake, logging and notification to the full council. "Complaints are now going to be submitted in a documented format. They will be logged and the full council will be notified," Wood said.

Council members generally praised the edits as clearer and more readable but pressed staff on specific wording. Vice Mayor Moore called the rewrite "a massive improvement" and asked for a minor wording change to treat alleged violations more clearly. Several council members raised concern that shifting initial complaint review away from a mayoral screening process could increase public agenda items; others said moving review to the full council could depoliticize handling of complaints.

On representation, the council and staff discussed alternate language that would bar commissioners from speaking on behalf of the town or their commission outside official business unless specifically authorized by the council through a work plan or other formal approval. Council members asked staff to narrow that restriction so it applies only to "commission matters" and not to unrelated personal speech.

Council members also asked staff to refine the preamble's phrasing that the code holds commissioners to standards "above and beyond" state law. Staff suggested and several members favored wording such as "locally adopted standards of conduct" to reduce vagueness while preserving the intent that the town may adopt stricter local standards than state minimums.

The council discussed enforcement detail at length. Under the proposed approach the town clerk would forward complaints and the appropriate staff member would prepare a memorandum to the full council summarizing the complaint and staff's review; staff would exercise judgment about whether to engage the named commissioner and how much analysis to include before council consideration. Council members asked that the memorandum make clear what staff has done or advised in response to a complaint so councilors are not presented with bare allegations without context.

Public commenter Mr. Who told the council he had been unable to obtain meeting minutes and asked for improved notification and transparency about local projects, citing an item he said was discussed without public notice. "A lot of that stuff, you know, it's is from seconds to minutes," he said.

Town Manager Constantine and the council agreed there was general concurrence to move the drafts forward and to return both the council code and commissioner code together for adoption if no substantial changes are requested. Constantine said staff would implement council direction and bring revised drafts to a future meeting's consent calendar. "We can have it on the consent calendar for the next meeting," Constantine said.

The study session ended with staff tasked to incorporate the council's feedback, add clarifying language on work‑plan amendments and memorandum content, and return the item for formal adoption. No formal vote or ordinance adoption occurred at the study session; the matter will return to the council for approval.