Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding Chapter 1.15, and by repealing Sections 2.01.210(b) and 2.01.1010; all relating to changing the regular election dates of the Primary Nominating and General Municipal Elections to March and November, respectively, to coincide with statewide elections as required by SB 415, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Okay. Thank you. We are going to be hearing item, I believe it's 22, which is an ordinance, please. Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Palm Beach Municipal Code pertaining to municipal election dates as required by SB 415. Read the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading Citywide. Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. I know we've I know we've we have voted on this and we've had four reports, so we don't need a full report, but just some updates on on recent things just to make sure everyone knows what they're voting on. Thank you, Mayor and member of the Council. The item before you tonight is pursuant to your action back in October of 2017 to comply with SB 415 and move our election dates beginning in 2020. As you know, the election dates are established by the city charter and as described in the council letter before you this evening, the amendments to the charter require a vote of the people. However, the California attorney general has opined that 415 prevails over our conflicting charter provisions, rendering the city's current charter provisions relating to the election dates void and allowing you to consider adopting this ordinance. This evening, however, there has been a recent development which has called the opinion of the Attorney General into question in a recent case, the Redondo Beach versus the state of California. A trial judge has ruled that SB 415 does not apply to charter cities. This case is now on appeal. The issue is that if the Court of Appeal eventually decides that SB 14 415 does not apply to charter cities, then the Council City Council does not have the authority to change the city election dates by ordinance. And this action, if taken tonight, would be void and the elections in 2020 would revert to the dates as provided in the city charter. And any change of future city charter relating to election dates would only be made by a vote of the people at a future election. We are continuing to monitor this case. It is on appeal. The attorney general is confident that they will be successful on appeal. However, we are waiting for a court decision on that. And in that regard, I do have two minor changes to the ordinance to make on the floor this evening. They are on page four and we we put in the wrong date, page four, line four. We need to strike November 2020 and insert 2016 and 2018. And what that section does is it extends the terms for the council members who were elected in 2016 and in 2018. They will be extended by five months to match the dates when we move the election dates to 2020. And that same date would be changed at line 12, we would strike November 2020 and insert 2016 to extend the terms for the school district members who were elected in 2016. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Any public comment on this saying no public comment. Councilor Richardson. Councilmember comes from Gonzales. Councilman Mongo. I think that it's just prudent to mention I know that a lot of this stemmed from the idea that we had low voter turnout. But if you looked at the voter turnout in June in a primary on the National with a lot of activity going on, District five had almost had over 40% voter turnout. And that's without removing many of the individuals. Yet, because L.A. County has not yet been able to reconcile the Department of Public Health's records of death records with L.A. County's voter record. And so that's 40% with the deceased still on the voter rolls. So I just want to say how proud I am of the residents of Long Beach for getting out and voting, and that when activated, people will turn out. Thank you. Members, please cast your votes.