The following article is reproduced with permission from Davis Citizens for Representation. It will soon be rewritten to discuss the situation in Marin County.

Next Steps for Davis

In California, the Government Code and election laws make no provision for choice voting, and contain many provisions that might be inconsistent with it. So to use choice voting, Davis must first become a charter city. Under the State Constitution, charter cities can design their own voting methods and election rules.

Becoming a charter city is a two-step process: first, get a charter proposal on the ballot and, second, campaign for its passage. This article provides some background information about charters and the process of adopting them. More information on these topics can be found here:

• League of Cities - Charter Cities Project

As a charter city, Davis can adopt choice voting in one of three ways. It can be done in the charter itself, by an ordinance passed by the City Council, or by an ordinance voted on by the people. An ordinance voted on by the people can be on the same ballot as the charter proposal that makes it possible.

Davis Citizens for Representation urges the adoption of choice voting by a vote of the people, either by including choice voting in the charter itself, or by putting an ordinance on the ballot for the people to vote on.

What is a charter?

A charter is like a constitution for a city or county. Cities are not required to have charters. Those that don't are governed under laws passed by the state legislature within limits established by the State Constitution. They are called "general law" cities, since the general laws of the state provide the same kind of framework for governing them that charters provide for governing charter cities. State law restricts what general law cities can do, compared with what charter cities can do, in a number of areas. These include governance, elections, public works contracting and several others.

Charters can be as short as a few sentences, and do little more than make explicit what is implicit in the existence of the charter itself, namely that the city has all of the home rule powers granted to charter cities by the State Constitution. This type of charter enables the city council to pass ordinances on some subjects that wouldn't be valid under general law. Voting methods are one example. This could be called a "broad" charter.

A second type of charter could list one or several specific exceptions to the state's general laws, and provide that the city be governed by general law in all other respects. This could be called a "narrow" charter. Again, a voting method not explicitly provided for in the general laws of the state could be part of a narrow charter.

Some charters, especially in the largest cities and counties, are very long and detailed. Davis does not need such a detailed charter

Do we want Davis to become a city charter?

Of course! A charter would allow us to use choice voting to elect the City Council.

In his presentation to the Governance Task Force, Peter Detwiler, an expert who works for the State Senate Committee on Local Governance said very clearly that there are no disadvantages to having a charter. He also said that, over time, the legislature and the courts have narrowed the gap between the powers of charter and general law cities in several areas. But charter cities still have a lot of power over the conduct of elections for city officials that general law cities do not have.

There is no need for a charter to change anything about how the city operates or how it is governed, except the specific things it is meant to change.

Charters are not just for the big cities. In 2002, the median population of a chartered city was 57,515. Davis, which has about 65,000 residents, would be slightly larger than the median. In fact, 26 chartered cities have populations under 20,000 and 4 have populations under 1,200.

As of October 2004, about 25 per cent of California cities had charters. Here is a spreadsheet of them with their populations.

How does Davis become a charter city?

Charters must be adopted by a majority vote of the people, and can only be amended by a majority vote of the people. A proposal to adopt a charter can be placed on the ballot either by the City Council or by a charter commission. A proposal to amend an existing charter can be placed on the ballot either by the City Council or by the initiative process.

A charter commission can be either elected by the people or appointed by the City Council. Its responsibility is to draft a charter. The commission mechanism might be a good way to write a charter that needs to cover many subjects and be very long and detailed. It is, however, a prolonged process and is not appropriate for Davis because we need a brief charter and can easily agree on what it should say. The Governance Task Force did much of the work of a charter commission, except that instead of writing the charter itself, it formulated a set of proposals for the City Council to consider.

The deadline for the City Council to put a charter proposal on the November 2005 ballot is approximately August 11.

Once a charter proposal is on the ballot, we need to ensure that the voters say yes. Choice voting is the kind of thing that sells itself, so it's a matter of conducting a city-wide campaign to ensure that enough voters understand how choice voting works and how it would improve city government.

Of course, there's no reason education can't start now. In fact, it already has.

What else has to happen?

That depends. If choice voting were written into the charter itself, then the City Council would just need to pass an ordinance spelling out the details of election administration procedures. Otherwise, Davis would also need an ordinance adopting choice voting. We urge that it be submitted to the people for a vote. The process for doing this is spelled out in the Elections Code, Section 9222.

The deadline for putting a choice voting ordinance on the November 2005 ballot is the same as the deadline for a charter proposal. Both proposals can appear on the same ballot together. The choice voting proposal would contain a provision that it would become effective only if the charter proposal also passes.

The ordinance submitted to the people would not need to spell out all of the details of election administration. (Neither would a charter provision.) Those could be contained in a separate ordinance approved by the City Council. The ordinances should be written so that a vote of the people is required to repeal choice voting altogether, while insuring that the City Council can update the more detailed provisions as Davis gains experience with choice voting.