Charter Presentation to City Council
12/16/97

Introduction of Committee Members

My name is Dennis Wolfe and I am the Chairman of the Citizens Charter Committee. I own Wolfe Insurance Services and have been very involved in community service the rubber duck race being the most visible.

I would like to briefly introduce the other nine members of the committee followed by a brief presentation on the results of our efforts.

Kelley Lanahan is a resident of Fremont in the Niles area. She is actively involved in a number of civic organizations including the PTA and the League of Women Voters. Kelley works in Strategic Management for Washington Hospital.

Steve Cho has been a resident of Fremont since 1974. He is a Systems Analyst and is President of his own software/consulting firm here in Fremont.

Bonnie Davis has been a resident of Fremont for 34 years and is active in government and civic affairs. She is a free lance writer specializing in Open Space and Trails issues.

Sandy Davis is a long-time Fremont resident and has been involved in the charter process for quite some time as an observer and now as a participant. Sandy works for an Oakland-based law firm.

Gayela Philips is a native Californian who worked for the city of Fremont for over 20 years and has lived in the city for over half of her life. She presently works at Fremont Bank as an executive assistant to the Senior Vice President. Gayela is involved in the community through her work with the Fremont and Niles Rotary Clubs.

Dave Lanferman is a partner of the law firm of Lanferman, Fisher, and Hashimoto and also is a member and chair of the Fremont Library Advisory Commission and County Library Advisory Commission. Dave has also served as President of the Southern Alameda County Bar Association. Dave has resided in Fremont since 1956. He lives in the Niles area.

Dave O’Hara is very involved in the community with his most recent position being that of immediate Past President of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce. Dave is a partner in one of the city's largest law firms.

Andy Macrae is founder of InfoLane, an Internet service firm here in Fremont, and is a member of the Fremont Library Advisory Commission.

Dave Zeigler is a Senior Programming Analyst for New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., and is a long time Fremont resident.

Statement of Committee Purpose

Because of the time constraint it is not possible to say more in identifying the committee’s members. I do believe you will come to know more about us by the language in the draft charter we are presenting to you tonight.

The committee was charged to draft a proposed city charter while incorporating a list of items that you asked us to consider. For the benefit of those unfamiliar with this subject I would like to briefly explain what a city charter is and what it offers to the residents of Fremont.

In the simplest analogy possible, a City Charter is like a constitution. It is a document developed exclusively for Fremont that empowers the people of this community with more control over the relationship we have with the State of California.

Like a constitution, a city charter is flexible and can be changed although it is not necessarily an easy process. Cities that operate without a charter do business in California under the general laws of the State. These are known as general law cities of which Fremont is presently one. Whereas a general law city can function quite well under state rules, a charter city gives greater control over municipal affairs to the residents. The voters of Fremont will learn more about what a charter is as public hearings are scheduled should the council elect to move forward in this process.

There are approximately 450 cities in the State of California and about 95 of them have charters. Until Fremont elects to become a charter city, we are the largest city in California to operate without a charter.

As we on the committee considered all of this we all understood that this document could become an important part of the city’s future. We want to make it very clear to all who are listening tonight that every member of this committee undertook this task with a mature focus on the significance of what we were creating.

Politics were kept out of this charter as that is something we all agreed was critical to its success. We had a goal for the document to create language that can be described in two words - "Charter Light." This means that we placed as few provisions in the charter as possible in order to keep city policies as flexible as possible.

The next topic we would like to cover is the description of the committee process.

Description of Committee Process

Given the task at hand, the committee began its meeting schedule with training on a process that helps to reach consensus on the many issues that we would be discussing. The staff introduced us to interest-based negotiations and other proven techniques designed for this purpose.

We learned to go slow by learning the basics and the interests behind major issues so that later we could go fast. Given the task ahead of us this training was very important.

First we would identify a topic that was to be considered for the charter.

We then had an open discussion where all ideas were put on the table for discussion. I can assure you we had some pretty interesting options and ideas as possible charter language.

Once we decided that the list of options was as complete as possible, we discussed the merits of each option and narrowed the list through preliminary votes.

A vote on final language ultimately occurred and it was put into the charter.

We approached the development of this charter with a similar method that the most progressive companies and cities today use - a process of continuous, quality improvement. Why should Fremont, an All America City, expect less from a committee charged with such an important task?

I would now like to show you some of the results of this process as we look at key elements of the draft charter’s language.

Draft Charter Key Elements

One of the very critical concerns that we want everyone to know is the existing city ordinances, codes, staff, present boards, etc. - will remain intact. A charter has no effect on them. Now, the first element we actually addressed with final language in the charter was our form of government.

Council-Manager Form of Government

We looked at many options. San Francisco was an example of the strong mayor form of government. Sunnyvale provided another variation for us to review. We also briefly looked at other cities outside of California such as Portland, Oregon, for its unique method of governing itself. We felt that our present form of government, Council-Manager, has worked well for Fremont since its inception. So, we opted to stay with it. The Council-Manager form of government uses a professional staff and with an elected mayor and council. The next topic is the Composition of Council.

Composition of Council

It was very clear that the committee agreed on expanding the council. There were two components to this decision. The first was to decide on how many new seats and the second was to consider from where all seats would be elected at large or by districts.

We looked at expanding to seven, nine and even eleven seats. The committee voted to expand the council to seven seats, including the position of mayor. Although some have joked that the last thing we need is more politicians, there are compelling arguments that Fremont voters need better representation both on a population basis here in Fremont and on our regional boards and commissions.

We also decided that the voters would elect all seats at large versus the alternative of districting. In fairness to the minority position of this committee, this was a heavily debated issue. We additionally considered charter language on how to transition to a larger city council.

The next topic is the commission appointment process.

Appointments to Board/Commissions

Our local boards and commissions play a very important role in the community’s development. I mention this because we want the citizens of Fremont to know that we understood how very important this issue is to everyone. We wanted to make sure that every citizen is encouraged to participate and has an equal opportunity to do so.

The committee devoted a great deal of time to this topic. We looked at several options, including doing nothing. The argument given for this option was that this is the way it was done under general law cities and it has worked well. In fairness, some general law cities used the same process we presently have. However, many other cities, charter or general law notwithstanding, did not, as we discovered in a survey that one committee member undertook in preparation for this discussion.

We finally reached consensus on the plan that every member of the council should be allowed to nominate up to two candidates for each commission vacancy. The council then votes on the list of nominees. The candidate who receives a majority of votes will be appointed to the available seat. The mayor will continue to announce the appointments as is presently done. We have retained some of the present system while keeping the theme of the charter -- giving the citizens the fairest opportunity to be more involved in their community. I would like to next discuss compensation of council.

Compensation of Council

Here again we devoted a great deal of time to the matter because of its obvious importance to our community.

We decided to allow for possible increases in compensation on two levels. The first is that any possible increase is tied to the average Bay Area Consumer Price Index over the preceding two years. We capped this increase to 5% per year and required the council to vote on accepting or rejecting any upward adjustment.

On the other hand there would be times the Price Index was too low for Fremont’s needs and the voters may want the council to have a salary increase above this factor. We felt that any possible increase above inflation needed to be brought to the voters for their approval. The draft charter language so states this.

Cost Analysis on Ballot Measures

As I have spoken earlier about the theme of this charter being one of allowing citizens more opportunity to become involved, the cost analysis on ballot measures is another example of fiduciary responsibility. We have put language into the charter that requires a cost analysis shall be performed on all ballot measures brought to the voters for their approval. This will help to protect the citizens from any one individual or entity who might, innocently or otherwise, push a project through our city that is simply too costly or likely to have cost overruns.

We want voters to be an informed part of the decision-making process. They have a right to know the cost on something that is supposed to benefit them. We all do this everyday when we make decisions to buy consumer goods. Why should it be any different when it comes to providing goods and services within our community?

Time simply does not permit a complete discussion of the many other key elements addressed in the charter. A few others are:

Filling of Unscheduled Council Vacancies

Council vacancies will be brought to the voters for their decision. The Charter only allows for temporary appointments of the council members by the council. Elections must be called so the voters can elect a permanent replacement. To avoid special elections, we encourage elections to be held in conjunction with state elections. This can save the city quite a bit of money, as locally held special elections are expensive – as high as $100,000 of taxpayer money.

Transition to a Larger Council

For the simplest reasons of all, that is to help the voters to understand how a transition would take place, we wrote language into the charter.

Term Limits and General Municipal Elections

On both term limits and the date of elections (even-numbered years) the voters have already decided in favor of these and we left their decisions intact.

In order to complete this part of our presentation we wanted to note a few final items known as the Bin List.

The entire list is in your packet.

They are:

1. Review Campaign Financing

2. Establish Conflict of Interest Policies

3. Determine Provisions for Health and Welfare Benefits for Mayor and Council Members

4. Revise Public Works Contracting Mechanisms to allow greater flexibility

5. Establish a Local Code of Ethics

There is so much more that could be said.

I would like to leave this part of the presentation with a simple question for the residents of Fremont.

Do we want the greatest possible control over Fremont’s municipal affairs? Or Do we want to let the State have it?

Closing Remarks

Along with fellow committee member David O’Hara, I was a guest on The Fremont Chamber of Commerce Sunday Morning Radio Show hosted by Ken Oplinger. We discussed the many sides of this subject. People were observing our committee as we worked to complete our part of the process. Awhile back there was an editorial in The San Jose Mercury News encouraging all of us who are involved in the process, the committee, the city council and the voters, to take the time to do it right.

We listened and we gave serious considerations to all of their comments. Some of the language is a direct result of their input. Conversely, there were some issues that were difficult to reach agreement and it seemed like we were deadlocked on options. I truly believe that one of the most significant reasons we were successful was because we knew so many people were watching our efforts. We persevered and to the tribute of every committee member, we all bent at different times in order to complete the final draft charter language per your established time frame.

As good as we all feel about what we accomplished, it is only the first step. The next step in the process is in your hands as you review our work. Our community members want to be a part of this process and we are confident that you will assure the citizens that they will have the time to review this and give their input. This is a major step for Fremont and one that we hope will not be rushed. Please give the people of Fremont enough time to absorb what this document is and what it can offer our citizens.

To illustrate the diligence of the committee, we briefly considered the issue of city council interaction with the school district. We would have been very interested in a complete review of the matter had you authorized it. I might add that this was a unanimous vote by the committee. Many on our committee felt that we were rushed on this issue.

It took us almost a year to develop what you see tonight and hopefully you will be able to do all that you can so that the Charter has the best possible chance to succeed next year when it goes to the voters.

The committee members want to thank the tireless effort put forth by City Manager Jan Perkins, City Attorney Harvey Levine and Assistant City Attorney Dave Livingston, and City Clerk Barbara Howard. We citizens of Fremont have an incredible team of people working behind the scenes and I for one do not feel they receive the accolades they most assuredly deserve. Our status as an All American City does in part say it. The committee would like to thank you, Jan, Harvey, Dave, and Barbara.

I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of the committee’s final draft of the proposed charter so they can familiarize themselves with the many topics addressed in it.

Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, with this presentation The Citizens Charter Committee has concluded its assignment for now. We thank you for the opportunity to expand Fremont’s horizons as we meet the demands of our ever-growing and ever-changing community.