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Agenda Item No. 5(B) 1 ORDINANCE NO. 2013–06 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EL CERRITO AMENDING SECTION 2.04.220 OF THE EL CERRITO MUNICIPAL CODE, BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES AND REPEALING SECTION 2.04.290, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD The City Council of the City of El Cerrito hereby ordains as follows: SECTION 1. Section 2.04.220 of Title 2 of the El Cerrito Municipal Code is hereby amended to read as follows: 2.04.220 Boards, commissions and committees. A. Boards, commissions and committees are appointed by the council to advise and to perform any duties determined by the council in one or more aspects of city government. City boards, commissions and committees are intended to provide a valuable service to the community by providing in-depth advice to the City Council on a variety of topics and assume some of the workload from Council to research issues or gather public input. Except as otherwise provided in state law, boards and commissions are directly responsible to the council and fill quasi-judicial roles. Commissions are made up of lay citizens, while boards are residents with special expertise. Committees sponsored by the city are intended to be working groups, do not fill quasi-judicial roles, and are established by council resolution. Appointment to boards and commissions shall be made only after: 1. Advertisement of the open position in a local paper; 2. Public interviews of selected applicants for the positions; 3. Appointment by a majority of the council. B. Unless determined elsewhere in law, the boards and commissions shall be governed by or meet the following criteria: 1. Membership. The boards and commissions shall consist of seven members each, who shall be residents of the city, unless otherwise provided in this chapter or otherwise prescribed by state law or the ordinance or resolution establishing the board or commission or committee to represent a specified organization, agency, group, category or profession. A “member” shall be defined as a voting member of any board, commission or committee established by the City Council, notwithstanding the manner in which such voting member is appointed. 2. Appointments. The members shall be appointed by majority vote of the council. Members shall not be reappointed to the same board or commission for more than two consecutive full terms. 3. Term. Terms are four years, commencing on January March 1st unless a ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. 5(B) 2 member is removed from office pursuant to the provisions of subsection of this section. Members appointed prior to March 1, 2014 with terms that commenced on January 1 will conclude their terms on January 1. The membership shall be divided into to achieve temporal distribution of terms. four, approximately equal groups, appointed in consecutive years. If a board member or commissioner fails to complete the term, the council appointment shall be for the remainder of the uncompleted term. Members are not eligible to serve on the same board or commission if they have served two consecutive full four-year terms. 4. Removal of Members. a. Members of boards and commissions serve at the pleasure of the Council and may be removed by a majority vote of the entire council. It shall be presumed that any member who is absent for three consecutive regularly scheduled meetings without cause, or half the regular meetings in a calendar year, or who resides outside the city, has resigned. The staff liaison shall notify the City Clerk of a vacancy within five days after the staff liaison has determined that the vacancy exists. Within one week after receiving such notice from the commission staff liaison, the City Clerk shall notify any member whose appointment has automatically terminated and report to the Council that a vacancy exists and that an appointment should be made to fill the vacancy. b. An absence shall be considered excused if either: the member informs the staff liaison of his/her intended absence at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled time of the meeting, ; or such absence is due to unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstances and reported and explained in writing to the staff liaison prior to the next meeting of the board or commission. Excused absences for medical reasons shall not exceed a period of 120 calendar days. c. Nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to limit the power of the City Council to remove any member of any City board, commission or committee at any time, with or without cause. 5. Quorum. A quorum of the board or commission shall consist of a simple majority of the appointed members. a. For boards and commissions, a quorum for the purpose of holding a meeting shall consist of a simple majority of the members then serving. A board or commission may act by an affirmative vote of a simple majority of a quorum. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a quorum for the purposes of holding a meeting of the Planning Commission, Design Review Board and Arts and Culture Commission shall consist of a simple majority of the members then serving, but not fewer than three members. Further, the Planning Commission, Design Review Board and Arts and Culture Commission may act by an affirmative vote of a simple majority of a quorum, but not less than three affirmative votes shall be required for the Planning Commission. ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. 5(B) 3 b. For committees, a quorum for the purpose of holding a meeting shall consist of a simple majority of the members then serving. Two members may conduct a meeting for the purpose of doing the work of a committee and allowing persons interested in becoming members to attend. Formal action of a committee shall require at least three members to be present at a meeting and a simple majority of affirmative votes of a quorum. 6. Officers. At the first meeting of each calendar year, the board or commission shall select its officersThe annual election of officers should occur during the month of April. These Officers shall be selected by a majority of the commission for a one-year term and consist of a chairperson (chair) and a vice chairperson. .No boardmember, commissioner or committee member shall serve as chairperson for more than two consecutive years. 7. Conduct of Business. The conduct of board or commission business shall be by Sturgis Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, or by rules of procedure adopted by the board or commission. Failure to follow the applicable rules of procedure shall not invalidate an otherwise valid action of a board or commission. 8. Minutes. The staff liaison of the board or commission shall cause minutes to be prepared for the membership and presented at the following meeting for approval by the board or commission. Minutes shall be posted on the city’s website within ten days of the board or commission’s approval. 9. Staff assistance. The city staff shall provide appropriate notice to the members of the agenda for each meeting, and shall provide to the members the draft minutes of the previous meeting for their approval. Each board or commission shall have access to all information possessed by the city concerning its agenda items. The City Manager will provide for staff assistance at the meetings of the various boards and commissions. 10. Meetings. Unless otherwise provided, the boards and commissions shall meet at least on a regularly scheduled basis, in a public meeting room and shall be subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act, Government Code Section 54950 et seq. C. Committees shall be governed by the same criteria as boards and commissions unless otherwise prescribed by council resolution. SECTION 2. Section 2.04.290 “Economic Development Board”: of Title 2 of the El Cerrito Municipal Code is hereby repealed in its entirety. Members of the Economic Development Board at the time that this ordinance becomes effective shall be members of the Economic Development Committee, and their terms shall be set by the resolution establishing the Economic Development Committee. 2.04.290 Economic Development Board. ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. 5(B) 4 A. There shall be an economic development board consisting of seven members who shall be either residents of the city or own or operate businesses in the city. Persons appointed because of the ownership or operation of businesses in the city do not have to be city residents. The economic development board shall have the powers and duties stated below, and such others as the council shall decide: 1. To advise the council on economic development matters, including budget, staffing levels, policies, selection criteria, project financial feasibility and suitability and investment of resources into proposed projects; 2. To make recommendations on the annual economic development work plan, including its priorities and evaluation measures; 3. To oversee the work of subcommittees established to concentrate on creating plans for high-priority areas; 4. To provide input to other city boards and commissions on economic development matters; 5. To review progress toward achieving the annual work plan goals and long range economic development goals; 6. To encourage community involvement in economic development; and 7. With the advice and consent of the city council, to form a resource council of business and community members who are available to provide assistance on an ad hoc basis. B. It is essential that this economic development board contain persons who are business owners and operators in the city based both on the expertise of such persons on economic development matters and because such persons will best represent the interests of other business owners and operators in the city. As a result, the economic development board shall contain at least two members who are business owners and operators, one of whom shall be the president of the El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce or his or her designee, in order that business interests are adequately represented on the board. The president of the Chamber of Commerce or his or her designee shall remain a member of the board during his or her tenure as chamber president and upon the installation of a new president, that person or his or her designee shall succeed to membership on the board. Pursuant to Section 18707.4 of the Rules and Regulations promulgated by the Fair Political Practices Commission, as amended, the ownership or operation of business interests by members of the economic development commission shall not be deemed a disqualifying material financial interest for conflict of interest purposes. C. Terms for Initial Members. In order to achieve the requirements of Section 2.04.220B3 of the municipal code, that membership be divided into four ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. 5(B) 5 approximately equal groups, appointed in consecutive years, the council shall appoint some of the new members of the economic development board to less than four-year terms in order to provide for a staggered system of appointments for future board members. D. The board shall hold regular business meetings no less than quarterly, with the minimum attendance of such being no less than three in one calendar year. Additional "on-call" special meetings may be called that are project specific, and can be called by the staff liaison in conjunction with the chair, with the attendance requirement for these "on-call" meetings being that no member shall miss more than three of these meetings in a calendar year. SECTION 3. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase or word of this ordinance is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, unlawful or otherwise invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The City hereby declares that it would have passed and adopted this ordinance and each and all provisions thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more of said provisions be declared unconstitutional, unlawful or otherwise invalid. SECTION 4. This Ordinance shall take effect and be enforced thirty (30) days after the date of its adoption, and prior to the expiration of fifteen days from the passage thereof, the ordinance or a summary thereof shall be posted or published as may be required by law, and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect. First read at a regular meeting of the City Council on the 19th day of November, 2013, and passed by the following vote: AYES: Councilmembers Abelson, Benassini, Bridges, Friedman and Mayor Lyman NOES: None ABSENT: None Adopted and ordered published at a regular meeting of the City Council held on the 2013, and passed by the following vote: AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: ABSENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: APPROVED: ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. 5(B) 6 Gregory B. Lyman, Mayor ATTEST: Cheryl Morse, City Clerk I, Cheryl Morse, City Clerk of the City of El Cerrito, do hereby certify that this Ordinance is the true and correct original Ordinance No. 2013–XX of the City of El Cerrito; that said Ordinance was duly enacted and adopted by the City Council of the City of El Cerrito at a meeting of the City Council held on the 2013; and that said Ordinance has been published and/or posted in the manner required by law. WITNESS my hand and the Official Seal of the City of El Cerrito, California, this day of , 2013.