Cerritos City Council Meeting Minutes
MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CERRITOS
HELD MAY 8, 2008
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 4:35 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Cerritos City Hall, 18125 Bloomfield Avenue, Cerritos, California.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mayor Pro Tem Barrows led the assembly in the salute to the flag.
ROLL CALL
The following Members of the City Council were in attendance:
Councilman Joseph Cho, Ph.D.
Councilwoman Laura Lee
Mayor Pro Tem Bruce W. Barrows
Mayor Jim Edwards
PUBLIC COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Alon Barlevy, Cerritos resident, expressed that all meetings should be televised.
Byron Costa, Seal Beach resident, asserted that he was abused by Sheriff's deputies at the Ralph's parking lot at Carmenita Road and South Street and indicated it has to stop.
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION AND/OR CONSIDERATION
Discussion/consideration relating to the possibility of amendments to the City Charter as proposed by Councilmembers.
Those in the audience were invited to speak on this matter. There was no response.
Discussion was held regarding possible areas of review with regard to the City Charter. It was noted during the discussion that non-substantive spelling or typographical errors, including changes in telephone number prefixes, could be changed without requiring a vote of the electorate.
Additional discussion ensued regarding the possibility of a Charter amendment to address Section 403 related to vacancies on the Council and it was generally agreed that the existing provisions provide for the most flexibility in addressing a variety of circumstances.
Reference was made to Section 417 relating to publishing of legal notices and the City Attorney provided a section overview, including the City's current compliance and implementation process. It was pointed out that as written, the Charter does not require a bidding process when there are no newspapers of general circulation published and circulated in the City, and the possibility of requiring a bid for legal publications regardless of where publication occurs was addressed.
Considerable discussion followed regarding legal publications costs; daily versus weekly publications as it relates to newspaper selection criteria and satisfaction of legal publication requirements; differences in threshold amounts related to bidding for purchasing materials and supplies, public works contracts and professional services; legal publications as an administrative function; budgeting for legal publications and possibly addressing the legal publications budget during budget review; the potential for favoring one newspaper over another when a bid process is absent from the legal publication process; and the satisfactory legal publication process being currently implemented. Following discussion it was generally agreed that no changes to Section 417 were necessary at this time.
Discussion continued regarding the term limit provisions of Section 400. It was pointed out during the discussion that some residents have questioned whether the intent of the term limit provision has been satisfied since after a two-year period those subject to term limits can run for office again, and the possibility of offering alternative term limit options to voters was also addressed. Other discussion topics included the possibility of appointing a committee to undertake a term limit review; conducting public hearings for public input; the disadvantages of a two-term limit due to the interruption of City representation on regional, state and national boards and committees that consider issues that impact the community; and possibly addressing the issue after the upcoming elections or placing the matter on the next regular election ballot.
In response to Council inquiry, City Attorney Steres observed that if a change in term limits were to occur, that change would be applied prospectively after the election at which it was voted upon.
MOTION: It was then moved by Councilman Cho and seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Barrows to direct the City Attorney to report back to the City Council in July 2008 with draft Charter language options to address whether or not to continue with term limits; whether or not to continue with current term limits as described in Section 400 of the Charter; and whether or not to have a sunset clause where one cannot run again and if the sunset clause should apply to two terms or three terms. The motion carried, with Mayor Edwards dissenting.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 5:35 p.m.
/s/ Josephine Triggs
Josephine Triggs, City Clerk
ATTEST:
/s/ Jim Edwards
Jim Edwards, Mayor/Chair
Approved: May 22, 2008
