Supervisors again voted Wednesday to place a sweeping rewrite of how county government works on the November ballot, with the panel’s three Democrats in support and its two Republicans in opposition.
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With the vote, supervisors favored a county charter overhaul measure spearheaded by Democratic Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, rather than one introduced in recent days by Republican Supervisor Joel Anderson.
“Residents deserve a county government that is transparent about how decisions are made,” Supervisor Paloma Aguirre said on Wednesday. “That kind of accountability is not partisan.”
The charter rewrite ballot measure has been months in the making, and the plan continued to see tweaks and changes in the middle of Wednesday’s meeting. The vote had originally been slated for Tuesday but was postponed after Lawson-Remer gave birth to her second child. She joined Wednesday’s meeting remotely.
The current package mostly stays faithful to past versions.
At its core, the changes — if passed by voters this fall — would hand supervisors new powers to control and shape the county’s vast bureaucracy of more than 20,000 employees.
If passed, supervisors would gain greater powers to confirm and fire top bureaucrats, in addition to hiring their own analysts to study and give reports on the county’s finances and programs.
It would also allow sitting and future supervisors to serve three four-year terms, instead of the current two.
Other changes that Lawson-Remer has not emphasized publicly would let supervisors give “input” on the hiring and firing for hundreds of county management positions.
In recent days, county attorneys added other language to the new charter measure that would allow supervisors to live outside of the district they represent — but only if the state Legislature ever passes a law authorizing that.
Although its proponents on the Board of Supervisors have promoted the package as a vehicle of transparency and accountability, the proposed rewrite has faced criticism from other elected county officials.
Sheriff Kelly Martinez and District Attorney Summer Stephan have both said that some language in the proposed ballot measure is meant to deceive voters at the ballot box.
Previously, the proposed ballot measure language asked voters to set a three-term limit for supervisors, without mentioning they currently serve two. It also would have asked them to impose term limits on the sheriff, district attorney, treasurer and assessor — offices that cannot be subject to term limits under state law.
“Why deceive the voters?” Martinez said at a news conference last week. “Why not exclude sitting supervisors from benefitting from the measure?”
Going into Wednesday’s vote, Lawson-Remer changed the ballot measure language to specify that voters would “increase term limits from two to three terms” for supervisors.
During the meeting, Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe also amended the measure with support from other Democrats to remove references to new term limits for other county elected offices.
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“In principle, I do agree with them,” she said. “I want to be clear and truthful with the voters that we’re going to them with things they have power and control over with their vote. Unfortunately, this part of the proposal actually does not do that.”
Montgomery Steppe also defended letting Lawson-Remer’s plan to allow sitting supervisors to benefit from any term limit extensions voters might pass.
“It really does take a long time to get things done in these seats,” said Montgomery Steppe, who is running this fall for her second term as supervisor. “I do think these three four-year terms allow for enough time to really fulfill the mandate of the voters but also provide fresh new ideas and perspectives.”
Because of the changes to the package, it faces a final procedural vote on June 25.
A counter-proposal from Anderson had in recent days won support from elected officials like Martinez and Stephan, but it fell short on Wednesday.
Anderson had sought to remove more controversial elements from the package. In his own proposal, only future supervisors would have been allowed to run for a third term. His version of the measure also would eliminate the expanded confirmation hearings for top civil service jobs and make the new county auditor job an elected position, instead of one appointed by supervisors.
In his final plea to colleagues, Anderson warned that sitting supervisors can’t foresee how a future Board of Supervisors might use an updated charter to improperly tamper with the county’s bureaucracy.
“We don’t know who’s going to replace us,” Anderson said. “They may be scoundrels.”
With the new charter overhaul a step closer to the ballot, Lawson-Remer has also added new language to her package directing the county “to provide residents with impartial, factual information” about the ballot measure, according to the supervisor’s legislation.
That could include public forums, social media posts, a county-hosted website and “other forums of community outreach.”
How to fund this effort will be up to the county’s chief administrative officer, its top bureaucrat, said Beth Willon, a spokesperson for Lawson-Remer.
On Wednesday, County Counsel Damon Brown told supervisors his office is drafting rules for how the county can legally educate the public about the ballot measure. Under state law, local governments are prohibited from using public money to support or oppose political campaigns or ballot measures.
Willon said Lawson-Remer’s office has not consulted California’s Fair Political Practices Commission for advice on how to design the education effort. County spokesperson Tammy Glenn did not say whether administration had.
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