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Sunnyvale council reviews charter changes that lengthen mayoral term and add ethics and term‑limit rules
Summary
Council and legal staff walked through multiple Home Rule Charter amendments that lengthen the mayor’s term to three years, establish a three‑term limit with a three‑year sit‑out, broaden the code of ethics, and require training and a supermajority to pursue council ethics investigations.
Town legal staff and administrators spent the work session reviewing a suite of proposed Home Rule Charter amendments that would change office terms, formalize ethics training, and shift how vacancies are filled.
"The mayor was a 2 year term, and that was voted now to be a 3 year term," Rachel Ramsey told the council as she summarized the change to mayoral terms, and staff said the change drives related adjustments such as requiring special elections to fill vacancies for terms longer than three years per Texas election law. Legal counsel said the charter language would also add a limit that "an individual may be elected to serve ... no more than 3 consecutive terms," with a required three‑year ineligibility period after such service.
The package would broaden the town's code-of-ethics authority by removing the word "official" from the section so council counsel may review a wider scope of conduct and would attach a mental-state standard ("willful or gross negligence") to violations, Allison (the town attorney) said. Staff also proposed an annualized orientation and an eight‑hour governance/ethics training requirement for elected officials and appointees.
Council members asked legal staff several clarifying questions about when the term limits take effect for members already in office and how the new ethics complaint process will be administratively handled. "That is exactly the way that we have envisioned that process working," Allison said, but staff also recommended drafting a policy to filter frivolous complaints so counsel and council time are not misused.
The presentation also included smaller technical changes: aligning the municipal budget adoption deadline with state law (moving from Sept. 20 to Sept. 30), requiring a Parks and Recreation board by ordinance, and clarifying appointment/removal authority for the town secretary and town attorney. Staff said additional drafting work will come back to council to resolve timing, procedural, and definitional questions.
