Voters will decide in November if the City Clerk’s job should be changed from an elected office to an appointed office. However, a proposal to extend term limits will not be on the ballot in either June or November.
The Seal Beach City Council held a study session on possible changes to the City Charter on Monday evening, Feb. 10.
The changes considered included: extending council member term limits to three terms, changing the city clerk to an appointed position and eliminating the election runoff requirement.
Term limit extension fails
The staff report by City Manger Jill Ingram suggested having voters to decide whether to extend term limits or to eliminate them entirely.
District Four Councilman Gary Miller first raised the proposal at a previous council meeting. On Monday night, Miller made a motion to put the issue on the June ballot for a special election.
The council voted 3-2 against Miller’s motion. Miller and District Five Councilman Michael Levitt voted to put the proposed City Charter change on the ballot.
“It took me five years on the City Council and numerous contacts with other elected official over those years to be voted onto the Orange County Transportation Authority Board of Directors, which has been beneficial to the citizens of Supervisorial District 2 and Seal Beach,” said Gary Miller, the councilman for College Park East.
Several members of the public spoke against Miller’s proposal.
“I believe in turning the rock over and over,” said Jim Caviolla. He also opposed “blowing money” on a special election at this time.
Caviolla is a council-appointed member of the city’s Tree Advisory Board. City board and commission members serve without term limits.
According to Ingram’s staff report, the cost of a special June election would be $34,170 to $41,505 for one ballot measure and $8,500 for each additional measure.
Local activist and one time District One council candidate Joyce Parque opposed extending the term limit unless there was also an at-large council seat added to the charter. Parque also wanted to change the city attorney’s job from an appointed position to an elected office.
Activist Mark Loopesko said he was personally opposed to extending the term limit, but would not object to putting the matter before voters in November.
Patty Campbell, a former City Council member, proposed extending the term limit to three terms and then barring council members from the council for the rest of their lives.
Currently, a former council member can run for office again after being out for four years.
“I feel it’s overkill,” Campbell said, referring to the two-term limit.
“It takes you four years just to learn the job,” she said.
Campbell said you are hitting your stride at the end of your second term and then you are turned out of office.
District Three Councilman Gordon Shanks said he was getting too decrepit to run again.
He also said the council members knew they were limited to two terms when they ran for office.
City clerk status
The council voted unanimously to have voters decide if the city clerk’s job should be an appointed position under the city manager.
Parque said the issue came up under former City Manager John Bahorski and the public did not support it.
Campbell, who ran against current City Clerk Linda Devine in 2004, said that over the years the city clerk’s job has evolved into a technical position. An elected city clerk might not have the experience required. She said there could be training costs in addition to election costs.
She also said that there was a conflict of interest to have the city clerk run for office. The city clerk oversees elections.
She also said that if an elected city clerk leaves, you have to hold a special election.
Deaton said she looked at the city clerk’s office as a clerical position. She said an elected city clerk was answerable to no one.
After the unanimous vote placed the matter on the ballot, Deaton asked staff to investigate putting an election-only clerk on the ballot to supervise elections.
Runoff
Mayor Ellery Deaton pulled a proposal to eliminate runoffs in council elections.
Ellery Deaton received the majority of the votes in the 2010 race to fill the District 1 council seat. However, she did not win the required 50 percent of the vote (plus one) and was forced into a runoff election against Main Street businessman Joe Kalmick. In the initial race, Deaton received 981 votes. Joe Kalmick received 657 votes or 33.2 percent. Deaton won the runoff.
The 2004 city clerk’s race also went into a runoff between Linda Devine and College Park East resident Patty Campbell.
According to the March 11, 2008 edition of the Sun, Devine won 46 percent of the vote and Campbell won 37 percent.
Council members also considered:
- Adding a “tie-breaker” system that would have the city clerk cast lots in the event two candidates received the same number of votes in an election. According to the staff report by City Manager Jill Ingram, the idea was proposed by City Clerk Linda Devine.
City Attorney Quinn Barrow recommended against changing the City Charter. Instead, he advised the council to pass a resolution to address the issue.
- Expanding the current “revolving door” charter section that prevents a former council member from becoming a city manager or department head for one year. Staff has recommended prohibiting former council members from becoming city employees of any kind and extending the time frame to two years.
The council voted to put the issue on the November ballot.
