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City attorney tells charter committee some 'strong mayor' proposals may exceed committee's authority
Summary
City Attorney Maldonado told the Charter Review Committee that three of six proposed charter changes (chief executive policy officer, mayoral city-manager nomination, and line-item veto) raise legal concerns under the council-manager form of government; he offered to prepare a memo clarifying the differences for the next meeting.
The city attorney told the Charter Review Committee that several of the changes previously discussed could be legally inconsistent with San Bernardino's council-manager form of government and recommended the committee limit early public outreach to items that are clearly within its scope.
"In my legal opinion... those three proposals are inconsistent with the council manager form of government," City Attorney Maldonado said, citing his written memo and offering to prepare a follow-up staff report that defines the characteristics of a strong-mayor system and the council-manager model. Maldonado identified the three proposals he had legal concerns about as: designating the mayor a chief executive policy officer (with quarterly city-manager policy reports), granting the mayor sole authority to nominate a city manager, and creating a line-item veto power in the annual budget.
Maldonado advised that three other items — funding a mayor's office staff, giving the mayor agenda access, and setting term limits for mayor and council — are within the committee's scope to analyze and discuss in outreach materials. Commissioners asked the attorney to circulate memos in advance of the next meeting; Maldonado agreed to circulate his analysis one week before the next session.
The committee accepted Maldonado's offer to prepare clarifying materials and asked staff to include the attorney's summary in next month's packet so members can decide which topics they will pursue for potential ballot consideration.
