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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 27 - Sunshine Ordinance Informational Report City Manager Office www.santa-ana.org/cm Item # 27 City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701 Staff Report July 20, 2021 TOPIC: Sunshine Ordinance Informational Report AGENDA TITLE: Informational Report about Proposed Amendments to the Sunshine Ordinance RECOMMENDED ACTION Accept informational report and provide direction to staff. DISCUSSION About the Sunshine Ordinance In October 2012, the City Council adopted the Sunshine Ordinance, a series of municipal code regulations relating to transparency and accountability. The Sunshine Ordinance is composed of six provisions: Sec. 2-150. - Meetings and agenda postings for city council. To supplement State and other applicable laws relating to publishing public meeting information, this section requires the following: 1. City Council meeting agendas are posted at least 96 hours before any regular City Council meeting. 2. City Council meeting notices are accessible on the City's website in various languages, including Spanish, through the use of free web-based translation application. 3. City Council meeting agendas list future agenda items on major projects. Sec. 2-152. - Plan approval. / Sec. 2-153. - Public input through community meetings prior to discretionary approval. This section imposes community meeting requirements for the following types of development projects: (1) City-sponsored development projects; (2) new residential projects containing 25 or more units with exceptions; (3) new non-residential projects of 10,000 square feet or more and which are subject to a negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration or environmental impact report; and (4) development projects requiring a zone change, Specific Plan amendment, or General Plan amendment. The community meeting requirements are summarized as follows: Sunshine Ordinance Informational Report July 20, 2021 Page 2 1 9 0 5 The development project applicant shall hold one community meeting no later than 20 days after submittal of an application for administrative site plan review. The applicant shall provide noticing of the community meeting to all property owners within a 500-foot radius of the property. o The notice shall include the time, place and date of the community meeting, a map depicting the location of the subject property, a brief description of the project, and the applicant's contact information. o The notice shall be written in English and Spanish and include instructions as to how to request language interpretation services. The community meeting shall be held either on a weeknight during the early evening hours or on a Saturday. The meeting shall be held in any facility that is accessible to the public and that is no more than one mile from the project site. Should the applicant receive a written request for language interpretation services no later than 48 hours prior to the meeting, the applicant's shall arrange for such services. During the community meeting, the applicant shall give a presentation detailing the components of the proposed development project and a description of any impacts or benefits to the community, and provide contact information so that members of the public can contact them for further information. The applicant shall also provide enough time for questions and input, and prepare meeting minutes. Not less than four days following the community meeting, the developer shall submit an affidavit under penalty of perjury that the required community meeting was held in compliance with the Sunshine Ordinance. Notice of Planning Commission public hearings shall be provided to all property owners within a 500-foot radius of the property. Sec. 2-154. - Access to contracts, bids and proposals. This provision requires the City to make available all Request for Proposals (RFPs) for public inspection. Additionally, RFPs must be available on the City’s website from the date the RFP is issued to the day proposals are due. Finally, the City shall notice on the City’s website the entity who is awarded a contract, along with the second and third ranked companies, for 30 days after RFP award. Sec. 2-155. - Calendars of certain city officials. This section requires that the Mayor and City Council, City Manager, and members of the City’s Executive Management Team maintain and share a monthly calendar, which must be available for public inspection at the Clerk of the Council Office and on the City website. The monthly calendars must be made available on the tenth business day of each month for the prior month. The monthly calendars shall include all scheduled City-related appointments, meetings, including regular and special City Council meetings, meetings with developers, meetings with union representatives, meetings with consultants, meetings with lobbyists, regional meetings, and meetings of subcommittees or task forces. Sunshine Ordinance Informational Report July 20, 2021 Page 3 1 9 0 5 Sec. 2-156. - Access to lobbyist information. This section requires the City to provide access, and a link on the City's website, to the following forms: Recipient Committee Campaign Statement (Form 460), Behested Payment Report (Form 803), and Statement of Economic Interests (Form 700). Sec. 2-157. - Public meetings related to city five-year strategic plan and annual budget. This provision requires that each February (but before March 31) and September (but before October 31), staff shall strive to host a community meeting in preparation of the annual budget. Additionally, this provision requires that every five years, the City Manager shall prepare and submit to the City Council a strategic plan setting forth the City’s mission, core values, five year goals, detailed measurable objectives, and key performance measures. To prepare the strategic plan, the City Manager is required to conduct a public meeting for the public to review the draft plan. Finally, the City Manager is required to host annual public meetings to present the strategic plan once it is approved by the City Council. Amendments to the Sunshine Ordinance in June 2013 In June 2013, the City Council amended the Sunshine Ordinance to change the timelines contained in the provisions of the ordinance: the date of the submittal and annual review of the City's five-year strategic plan, the annual budget meeting dates, and the date for the monthly posting of the calendars of public officials. May 2021 City Council Discussion to Consider Amending the Sunshine Ordinance In May 2021, City Council directed staff to research proposals to amend the Sunshine Ordinance as follows: Add one additional community meeting for City-sponsored development projects. Increase noticing requirement for City-sponsored development projects from addresses within a 500-foot radius of the subject property to a 2,000-foot radius, as well as informing renters and homeowners. Require Nixle notifications when fulfilling noticing requirements for City-sponsored development projects. Require lobbyists to register with the City Clerk. Continuing the deliverance of City Council meetings in the digital format and allow virtual participation of residents. Publish public meeting agendas seven days in advance. Staff assessed each proposal to determine the feasibility of implementation of each. An overview of each proposal is provided below and includes the budgetary aspects of the proposed provisions, as well as the benefits that they would offer in improving the Sunshine Ordinance. Sunshine Ordinance Informational Report July 20, 2021 Page 4 1 9 0 5 Proposed Changes to the Sunshine Ordinance Add one additional community meeting for certain development projects, which would require a total of two community meetings. The cost associated with requiring a second community meeting varies, and principally includes the staff time associated with coordinating the meeting. Funding to support the staffing requirements for these types of meetings are supported by existing personnel budgets for various departments. There is no fiscal impact associated with this proposal. Increase noticing requirement for certain development projects from addresses within a 500-foot radius of the subject property to a 2,000-foot radius, as well as informing tenants that rent and not solely the homeowners. If the City were to amend the Sunshine Ordinance to require a development project applicant to send mailed notices of community meetings to homeowners and renters who live within a 2,000-foot radius of the subject property (as opposed to the current requirement of only sending mailed notices to homeowners within a 500-foot radius of the subject property), the number of notices would increase significantly—and vary significantly depending on the location. The cost to send mailed notices is borne by the applicant. As such, there is no fiscal impact for the City. Require Nixle notifications when fulfilling noticing requirements for City- sponsored development projects. There is no cost for using Nixle, a digital communications tool, to send digital notices for community meetings associated with community meetings for certain development projects. However, Nixle is a specific digital communications tool and will likely not be in use to send digital communications for general purposes in the future. The City is in the process of acquiring technology appropriate for community engagement. Staff recommends that the City Council consider removing the specificity of “Nixle” notifications and replacing it with “digital” notifications. Require lobbyists to register with the Clerk of the Council. The City uses NetFile, a digital tool to assist users with filing campaign finance and related forms/reports, including Recipient Committee Campaign Statement (Form 460), Behested Payment Report (Form 803), and Statement of Economic Interests. NetFile offers a lobbyist disclosure filing module, a subscription-based software that costs approximately $10,000 annually. The City Council may amend the Sunshine Ordinance to define lobbyist disclosure requirements or adopt a lobbyist ordinance for the Clerk of the Council to administer. Continue to host hybrid virtual/in-person City Council meetings. The main associated cost with this provision is maintaining and renewing the annual Zoom license fee, which is $360. Information Technology and Clerk of the Council Office staff would administer the meetings using existing staffing. Sunshine Ordinance Informational Report July 20, 2021 Page 5 1 9 0 5 Publish public meeting agendas seven days in advance. State law requires that public meeting agendas for regular meetings, such as regular City Council meetings, be published at least 72 hours (or three days) prior to the meeting start time. The Sunshine Ordinance, in its current form, requires that regular City Council meeting agendas be published 96 hours (or four days) prior to the meeting start time. If the City Council were to amend the Sunshine Ordinance to require regular City Council meeting agendas to be published seven days in advance, there would be no direct cost associated with the change in publishing time. However, each City department that submits agenda items, along with departments who facilitate the agenda process (particularly the Clerk of the Council Office, City Manager’s Office, and Finance Department) would be required to revise their workflow and associated processes with preparing agenda items so as to anticipate the additional lead time that would be required to publish the City Council meeting agendas. Additionally, while the Clerk of the Council does not anticipate issues with revising and amending the City Council meeting agendas between the proposed publishing date, if changes are required between the proposed publishing date and the City Council meeting date, additional staff time would be required to prepare revisions and supplemental agenda items. Further, depending on the frequency of such revisions, it could make it difficult for users to navigate the agenda management interface on the City website (i.e., users may struggle with finding agenda items because of the increase in the number of documents that would be listed in the agenda management interface). Next Steps At this time, staff seeks direction from the City Council on assessing the proposed revisions to the Sunshine Ordinance. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT There is no environmental impact associated with this action. FISCAL IMPACT There is no fiscal impact associated with this action. Submitted By: Kristine Ridge, City Manager Approved By: Kristine Ridge, City Manager ProposedAmendmentstotheSunshineOrdinance SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 1 July20, 2021 AbouttheSunshineOrdinance SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 2 July20, 2021 BackgroundTheSunshineOrdinancewasadoptedinOctober2012. TheSunshineOrdinanceconsistsofprovisionstoexpandtransparency. The SunshineOrdinancewas amendedin June2013. Changedthetimelinescontainedintheprovisionsoftheordinance: thedateofthesubmittalandannualreviewofthe City'sfive- yearstrategicplan, theannualbudgetmeetingdates, andthedateforthemonthly postingofthecalendarsofpublicofficials. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 3 July20, 2021 Sec. 2- 150. - Meetingsandagendapostingsforcitycouncil. City Councilmeetingagendasarepostedatleast96hoursbeforeanyregularCityCouncilmeeting. CityCouncilmeetingnoticesareaccessibleontheCity'swebsiteinvariouslanguages, including Spanish. City Councilmeetingagendaslistfutureagendaitemsonmajorprojects. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 4 July20, 2021 Sec. 2- 152. - Planapproval. / Sec. 2- 153. -Public inputthrough communitymeetingspriortodiscretionary approval. Thedevelopmentprojectapplicantshallholdonecommunitymeetingnolaterthan20daysaftersubmittalofanapplicationforadministrativesiteplan review. Theapplicantshallprovidenoticingofthecommunity meetingtoallpropertyownerswithina500- footradiusoftheproperty. Thenoticeshallincludethetime, placeanddateofthecommunitymeeting, amapdepictingthelocationofthesubjectproperty, abriefdescriptionoftheproject, andtheapplicant'scontact information. Thenotice shallbe writteninEnglishandSpanish andincludeinstructionsas tohowtorequestlanguageinterpretationservices. ThecommunitymeetingshallbeheldeitheronaweeknightduringtheearlyeveninghoursoronaSaturday. Themeetingshallbeheldinanyfacilitythat isaccessibletothepublicandthatisnomorethanonemilefromtheprojectsite. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 5 July20, 2021 Sec. 2- 152. - Planapproval. / Sec. 2- 153. -Public inputthrough communitymeetingspriortodiscretionary approval. Should theapplicantreceiveawrittenrequestforlanguageinterpretationservicesnolaterthan48hourspriortothemeeting, theapplicant'sshallarrangeforsuchservices. Duringthecommunitymeeting, the applicantshall giveapresentationdetailingthecomponentsoftheproposeddevelopmentprojectandadescriptionofanyimpactsorbenefitstothecommunity, andprovidecontactinformationsothatmembersofthepubliccancontactthemforfurtherinformation. Theapplicantshallalsoprovideenoughtimeforquestionsandinput, andpreparemeetingminutes. Notlessthanfourdaysfollowingthecommunitymeeting, thedevelopershallsubmitanaffidavitunderpenaltyofperjurythattherequiredcommunitymeetingwasheldincompliancewiththeSunshineOrdinance. NoticeofPlanningCommissionpublichearingsshallbeprovidedtoallpropertyownerswithina500-footradiusoftheproperty. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 6 July20, 2021 Sec. 2- 154. - Accesstocontracts, bidsandproposals. All RequestforProposals (RFPs) forpublicinspectionandavailableontheCity’swebsite. The CityshallnoticeontheCity’swebsitetheentitywhoisawardedacontract, alongwiththesecondandthirdrankedcompanies, for30daysafterRFPaward. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 7 July20, 2021 Sec. 2- 155. - Calendarsofcertaincityofficials. MonthlycalendarsfortheMayor andCityCouncil, City Manager, andmembersof theCity’sExecutiveManagement Team shallbeavailableforpublicinspectionattheClerkoftheCouncilOfficeandonthe City’swebsite. The monthlycalendars shallbemadeavailableonthetenth businessdayofeach month. The monthlycalendarsshallincludeallscheduledCity- related appointments, meetings, includingregularand specialCityCouncilmeetings, meetings withdevelopers, meetingswithunionrepresentatives, meetingswithconsultants, meetingswithlobbyists, regional meetings, andmeetings ofsubcommitteesortaskforces. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 8 July20, 2021 Sec. 2- 156. - Accesstolobbyistinformation. ThissectionrequirestheCitytoprovideaccess, andalinkontheCity'swebsite, tothefollowingforms: RecipientCommitteeCampaignStatement Form 460) BehestedPaymentReport (Form803) StatementofEconomicInterests (Form700). SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 9 July20, 2021 Sec. 2- 157. - Publicmeetingsrelatedtocityfive-yearstrategicplan andannualbudget. Thisprovisionrequiresthat eachFebruary (butbeforeMarch31) andSeptember (butbeforeOctober31), staffshallstrive tohostacommunitymeetinginpreparationoftheannualbudget. Additionally, thisprovisionrequiresthateveryfiveyears, theCityManagershallprepareandsubmittotheCityCouncilastrategicplansettingforththeCity’smission, corevalues, fiveyeargoals, detailedmeasurableobjectives, andkeyperformancemeasures. Topreparethestrategic plan, theCityManagerisrequiredtoconductapublicmeetingforthepublictoreviewthedraftplan. Finally, the CityManagerisrequiredtohostannualpublicmeetingstopresentthestrategicplanonceitisapprovedbytheCityCouncil. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 10 July20, 2021 ProposalstoAmend theSunshineOrdinance SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 11 July20, 2021 Addoneadditionalcommunitymeetingforcertain developmentprojects, whichwouldrequireatotaloftwocommunitymeetings. Thecostassociatedwithrequiringasecondcommunitymeetingvaries, andprincipallyincludesthestafftimeassociatedwithcoordinatingthemeeting. Fundingtosupportthestaffingrequirementsforthesetypesofmeetingsaresupportedbyexistingpersonnelbudgetsforvariousdepartments. Thereisnofiscalimpact totheCity associatedwiththisproposal. Allothercosts for the meeting, includingnotices, mailers, venuerental/Zoomaccount, staffing, producingtherequiredpost- meetingsummaryminutes, etc. Arebornebytheapplicant. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 12 July20, 2021 Increasenoticingrequirementforcertaindevelopmentprojectsfromaddresseswithina500-footradiusofthesubjectpropertytoa2,000- footradius, aswellas informingtenantsthatrentandnotsolelythehomeowners. Ifthe Citywereto amendtheSunshineOrdinancetorequireadevelopmentprojectapplicanttosendmailednoticesofcommunitymeetingstohomeownersandrenterswholivewithina2,000-footradiusofthesubject property, thenumber ofnoticeswouldincrease significantly — andvarysignificantly dependingonthe location. Staffestimatesthatthenumberof mailnoticescouldincrease tenfold. The costtosendmailednoticesisbornebytheapplicant. There isnofiscalimpactfortheCity. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 13 July20, 2021 Require Nixlenotificationswhenfulfillingnoticing requirementsforCity-sponsoreddevelopmentprojects. Thereisnocostforusing Nixle. However, Nixleisaspecificdigital communicationstoolandwilllikelynotbeinusetosenddigitalcommunicationsforgeneralpurposesinthefuture. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 14 July20, 2021 Requirelobbyiststo registerwiththeClerkoftheCouncil. TheCityuses NetFile, adigitaltooltoassistuserswithfilingcampaignfinanceandrelatedforms/reports, includingRecipientCommitteeCampaignStatement (Form460), Behested PaymentReport (Form803), andStatementofEconomicInterests. NetFileoffersalobbyistdisclosurefilingmodule, asubscription- basedsoftwarethatcostsapproximately $10,000annually. The CityCouncilmayamendtheSunshineOrdinancetodefinelobbyistdisclosurerequirementsoradopta separatelobbyist ordinancefortheClerkoftheCouncil toadminister. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 15 July20, 2021 Continuetohosthybridvirtual/in- person CityCouncilmeetings. Themainassociatedcostwiththis provisionismaintainingandrenewingtheannualZoomlicensefee, whichis $360. InformationTechnologyandClerkof theCouncilOfficestaffwouldadministerthemeetingsusingexistingstaffing. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 16 July20, 2021 Publishpublicmeetingagendassevendaysinadvance. Statelawrequiresthatpublicmeetingagendasforregularmeetings, suchasregular CityCouncilmeetings, bepublishedatleast72hours (orthreedays) priortothemeetingstart time. The SunshineOrdinance, initscurrentform, requiresthatregularCityCouncilmeetingagendasbepublished96hours (orfourdays) priortothemeetingstarttime. If theCityCouncilwereto amendtheSunshineOrdinanceto requireregularCityCouncilmeetingagendastobepublishedsevendaysinadvance, therewouldbenodirectcostassociatedwiththechangeinpublishingtime. Staffacrossdepartmentswouldberequiredtoadjustworkflowtoaccommodateseven- day leadtime. Ifrevisedagendasandsupplementaldocumentsaresharedaftertheseven- daypublishing date, itcouldcreateconfusionfortheusertofindtheCityCouncilmeetingagendaitems. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 17 July20, 2021 NextSteps SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 18 July20, 2021 Atthistime, staffseeksdirectionfromtheCityCouncilonassessingtheproposedrevisionstotheSunshineOrdinance. SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 19 July20, 2021 Questions? SunshineOrdinance AmendmentsCityManager’sOffice Slide 20 July20, 2021