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Staff Report with Attachments PREPARED BY: Michelle Radcliffe Deputy Clerk Reviewed by: Town Manager and Town Attorney 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov TOWN OF LOS GATOS COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT MEETING DATE: 09/03/2019 ITEM NO: 5 DATE: August 28, 2019 TO: Mayor and Town Council FROM: Laurel Prevetti, Town Manager SUBJECT: Adopt the Council Policy Committee’s Recommendation to Amend Council Policy 2-11 to Allow Applicants to Apply for More than One Board, Commission, or Committee Per Recruitment Cycle RECOMMENDATION: Adopt the Council Policy Committee’s recommendation to amend Council Policy 2-11 to allow applicants to apply for more than one Board, Commission, or Committee per recruitment cycle. DISCUSSION: At its August 27, 2019 meeting, the Council Policy Committee considered proposed modifications to the Commission Appointment Policy, which included streamlining the application process to allow applicants to apply to more than one Commission, rank their choices, and complete a single application for all Commissions. After discussion, the Committee directed staff to forward the recommendation to the full Council to amend the Policy to allow applicants to submit applications for more than one Commission and rank their preferences during a recruitment cycle. CONCLUSION: The recommended modification to Council Policy 2-11 is shown on Attachment 2. COORDINATION: The preparation of this report was coordinated with the Town Manager’s Office and the Town Attorney. PAGE 2 OF 2 SUBJECT: Amend Council Policy 2-11 Entitled Commission Appointments DATE: August 28, 2019 ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT: This is not a project defined under CEQA, and no further action is required. ATTACHMENTS: 1. August 27, 2019 Council Policy Committee Staff Report 2. Red-lined Council Policy 2-11 PREPARED BY: Shelley Neis Town Clerk Reviewed by: Town Manager and Assistant Town Manager 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 406-354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov TOWN OF LOS GATOS COUNCIL POLICY COMMITTEE REPORT MEETING DATE: 08/27/2019 ITEM NO: 2 DATE: August 20, 2019 TO: Council Policy Committee FROM: Laurel Prevetti, Town Manager SUBJECT: Review and Provide Direction on Proposed Modifications to the Commission Appointment Policy RECOMMENDATION: Review and provide direction on proposed modifications to the Commission Appointment Policy. BACKGROUND: The Town accepts applications for Commissions throughout the year and holds its annual recruitment and appointment process in the fall, with mid-year recruitments held in early spring if necessary. In accordance with State Law, the Town Clerk posts a list of current vacancies on the Town website and on the front door of Town Hall throughout the year. During the recruitment cycle, the Town Clerk advertises the current vacancies in various mediums (Leadership Los Gatos, Chamber of Commerce, Los Gatos Weekly ads, Town website, social media, Town events, etc.) to inform residents and encourage participation. During the recruitment cycle, the Town Clerk notifies applicants from the last 12 months who were not interviewed by Council of the vacancy and determines if they are still interested in volunteering. If the applicant is interested, they are placed in the applicant pool for the next scheduled interviews by Council. Per Town Policy 2-11, the Town Clerk prepares and maintains applications for appointment to Commissions. There are separate applications for each of its Commissions. Currently an applicant can only apply for one Commission and can only serve on one Commission at a time. ATTACHMENT 1 PAGE 2 OF 2 SUBJECT: Commission Appointment Policy DATE: August 20, 2019 DISCUSSION: The Town Clerk receives applications to Commissions throughout the year and in recent years, there has been a decline in applications submitted. In some cases, certain Commissions receive many applications while other Commissions do not have any applicants. In order to encourage and utilize applicants who are not appointed to their choice of Commission, staff is recommending that the application process be streamlined to allow one application for all Commissions and allowing the applicant to rank their choices. This allows applicants who were not chosen for their first choice to be selected for their second (or third, etc.) Commission of choice. This prevents the Town from turning away potential volunteers by giving them an option to volunteer for another Commission during the current recruitment process. Staff is recommending that the timeframe for keeping applications on file be changed from 12 months to 24 months for applicants that were interviewed and not appointed by Council and remain at 12 months for applicants that were not interviewed b y Council. Staff is also recommending that if a mid-term vacancy arises, staff will bring recommended appointments for Council consideration at the next available Council meeting. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT: This is not a project defined under CEQA, and no further action is required. ATTACHMENT 2 COUNCIL POLICY MANUAL TITLE: Commission Appointments, Residency and Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A Quorum POLICY NUMBER: 2-11 EFFECTIVE DATE: 2/28/1990 PAGES: 7 ENABLING ACTIONS: REVISED DATES: 6/13/1994; 6/16/2014; 4/7/2015; 10/18/2016; 2/21/2017; 2/6/2018; 3/19/19 APPROVED: PURPOSE To establish a policy to encourage participation by the Town’s residents on Town Boards, Commissions and Committees (hereinafter referred to as "Commissions"). The Town will encourage residents to participate on Commissions by advertising vacancies on Commissions for at least 30 days, preparing easily understood applications, maintaining clear descriptions of the role of each Board, Commission, and Committee and its respective members , providing current meeting schedules, and conducting public interviews of all Commission applicants, except as provided by this Policy. SCOPE This Policy applies to all applicants to Town Boards, Commissions and Committees. POLICY The Town Council encourages public participation in all decision-making and to be successful residents must be assured both that the participation is meaningful and that their input will be valued. The widest representation from the community can only be achieved if vacancies are well advertised so that anyone interested will have the opportunity to apply. Interviews of the applicants conducted in public by the Town Council demonstrates that it values these appointments and that all have an equal opportunity to be appointed. Applicants may apply to only more than one Commission and shall rank their choices in their preferred order, during each recruitment cycle. To ensure the greatest possible participation by the public, it is the Town's policy that no person shall be appointed to more than one Commission except in those cases where they are ex-officio members of other Boards, Commissions and Committees. This Policy does not apply to Commission members serving as representatives of their Commiss ion who have been appointed by the Town Council. (Revised on 4/07/15) Small Town Service Community Stewardship Future Focus TITLE: Commission Appointments, Residency and Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A Quorum PAGE: 2 of 7 POLICY NUMBER: 2-11 RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS Residency within the incorporated municipal limits of the Town of Los Gatos, California is required for appointment and continued membership on all Town of Los Gatos Boards, Commissions, and Committees, with the exception of the Youth Commission. Youth Commission: The members shall be students who are entering grades 8 through 12. Membership for the students requires either residency in the incorporated limits of the Town of Los Gatos or residency in the unincorporated areas of the County of Santa Clara, which have a Los Gatos mailing address. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS 1. All members of all appointive Town Advisory Bodies should attend all regular and special meetings of said Advisory Bodies. 2. Any member not in attendance at a regular meeting of said Advisory Body for at least 70% of the meeting shall be considered absent. 3. Any member of an appointive Town Advisory Body who is absent from the number of regular meetings listed below appropriate to his or her Advisory Body shall, as a result, surrender his or her office on the Advisory Body and the office shall be considered vacant. a. For an Advisory Body which holds six (6) or more regular meetings per a consecutive twelve (12) month period: three (3) regular meetings. b. For an Advisory Body which holds five (5) or fewer regular meetings per a consecutive twelve (12) month period: two (2) regular meetings. c. For an Advisory Body which holds sixteen (16) or more re gular meetings per a consecutive twelve (12) month period: eight (8) regular meetings. 4. The vacant position shall be filled by appointment by a majority vote of the Town Council, for a term equal to the unexpired portion of the office vacated. Any member removed from office due to non -attendance may re-apply to serve on a Town Advisory Body, but will not be treated as an incumbent in any subsequent application to the same Advisory Body. 5. If a Youth Commissioner liaison misses three meetings of a liaison Commission during a *consecutive twelve (12) month period , the Youth Commission shall appoint a different Youth Commissioner as liaison. *Consecutive twelve (12) month period is defined as any consecutive twelve-month period beginning with the first absence. A regular meeting shall not be cancelled and replaced with a special meeting in order to alleviate an absence by an advisory body member. TITLE: Commission Appointments, Residency and Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A Quorum PAGE: 3 of 7 POLICY NUMBER: 2-11 QUORUM REQUIREMENTS The number of members needed to constitute a quorum on any Town Advisory Body shall be a majority of the total number of filled seats. PROCEDURES The following procedures will be followed by the applicant, the Town Clerk and the Town Council for the appointment of applicants to Town Commissions: Responsibility and Actions: Town Clerk A. Annual Recruitments Adult Commission members' terms begin on January 1 st and end December 31st, Youth Commissioners’ terms follow the academic year and begin on August 1 and end on June 30. The Town Clerk shall perform the following duties in conducting an annual recruitment for Commission members: 1. Notify Town Council of vacancies on Commissions by indicating the names of the Commissions, the number of terms expiring or being vacated, names of individual(s) with expiring terms or vacating seats, advertising periods (at least 30 days) and the date of interview. 2. Advertise the vacancies, including the application deadline and the interview date, which shall be set for no later than the second Town Council meeting in December for Adult Commissioners, and by the fourth Wednesday in May, no earlier than 4:00 p.m., for Youth Commissioners. 3. Prepare and maintain easily understood applications for appointment to Commissions. Applications shall include the following policy information: a. Prior to initial appointment to any Commission, non -incumbent applicants m ust be interviewed by the Town Council. The applications of those not appearing will be held for the next recruitment. b. If an incumbent Commissioner is requesting reappointment to the same Commission, the incumbent may submit a request to be interviewed by telephone, with their application, instead of attending the interview or must submit a letter prior to the interviews, describing the reason why the applicant cannot be present telephonically or in person for the interview, and why the applicant should be reappointed to the Commission. c. Submissions deadlines are mandatory; no exceptions are permitted. TITLE: Commission Appointments, Residency and Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A Quorum PAGE: 4 of 7 POLICY NUMBER: 2-11 4. Applications: a. For adult applicants — Accept applications, verify eligibility, and distribute copies of the applications of eligible applicants to the Town Council prior to the interviews for appointment. b. For student applicants — Accept applications, verify eligibility, and distribute copies of the applications of eligible applicants to the Town Council Selection Committee prior to the interviews for appointment. 5. Notify the applicant by letter or email as to the date and time of the interview. 6. Facilitate the Council voting process set fort h below by informing Council as to how many votes are possible on each Commission, calling out applicants' names, and identifying the applicants receiving sufficient votes for appointment. This process does not apply to student applicants. 7. Applicants: a. For adult applicants — After the interviews and Council vote are completed, notify all applicants of the Council's action, and explain Town policy of keeping application active for one year with notification of subsequent openings on that Commission to the interested applicants. b. For student applicants — After the interviews are completed, notify all applicants of the Council Committee's action, and prepare a staff report for the Town Council to ratify the Committee's appointment at the first Town Council meeting in June. Balloting Process Unless determined otherwise, the Council shall conduct a ballot vote for the appointment of individuals to fill the vacancies for each Commission. Such ballot vote may be conducted at either a regular, adjourned or special meeting of the Town Council. The ballot vote process shall be conducted as follows: 1. The Town Clerk shall provide a ballot to each Town Council member listing the names of all applicants and “None of the above” for each respective Commission. Prior to the vote, the Town Clerk shall publicly announce the position vacancy and all applicant names that are listed on the ballot; 2. Each Council member may vote for the same number of applicants as there are current vacancies on the respective Commission. In no case, can a Council Member cast more votes than there are vacancies; or vote for the same candidate more than on ce on each TITLE: Commission Appointments, Residency and Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A Quorum PAGE: 5 of 7 POLICY NUMBER: 2-11 ballot (i.e. cumulative voting -- e.g. where there are three vacancies, a Council member may not give all three votes to the same candidate). A Council Member is not required to vote for any of the candidates or for the total number of vacancie s available. 3. The Town Clerk shall collect all ballots and shall publicly announce the name of each Town Council member and how that Council member cast his or her vote. In the case of a tie vote, the Town Clerk will announce that there is a tie and that a run-off vote shall be conducted but will not announce the names of the applicants in the run-off. Once all voting is concluded and a decision made, the votes will be made public. The run-off ballot will also include a “None of the above” option. 4. Applicants receiving a majority number of votes shall be deemed appointed to the Commission. In the event of a tie, a run-off vote shall be conducted among the applicants receiving the highest number of votes from the previous round. This shall continue until a majority consensus on an applicant(s) is reached for the number of vacancies to be filled. In the event of an unbreakable tie, the Council may determine an alternative method for selecting the appointee(s) or direct the Town Clerk to re- advertise the vacancy. 5. If an applicant(s) is appointed to an Advisory Body which has vacancies for both full and partial, unexpired terms, the length of the appointee’s term will be determined by the Mayor. B. Mid-Term Recruitments During the year, Commissions may experience vacancies that drop the number of filled seats to a number of members that is not sufficient to conduct Commission business. The Commission may request the Council to conduct a mid-term recruitment to fill seats. To the extent possible, the Town Clerk will consolidate mid -term recruitments to minimize the number of recruitments occurring th roughout the year. In the event of a vacancy on the Planning Commission, the Town will automatically conduct a mid -term recruitment. Mid- term recruitments will not be conducted for student commissioners. The Town Clerk shall advertise mid -term vacancies on Com missions for at least 15 days. Responsibility and Action: Applicant 1. Read the Commission Appointments, Residency and Attendance Requirements, a nd Establishing a Quorum Policy, complete and submit to the Town Clerk the application for appointment to a Town Commission by the advertised d eadline date and time. 2. For adult applicants: Attend the Council meeting to be interviewed for Commission appointment. For student applicants: Attend the Council Selection Committee interview session. TITLE: Commission Appointments, Residency and Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A Quorum PAGE: 6 of 7 POLICY NUMBER: 2-11 3. If an incumbent Commission member is requesting reappointment to the same Commission, the incumbent may submit a request to be interviewed by telephone, with their application, instead of attending the interview or must submit a letter prior to the interviews, describing the reason why the applicant cannot be present telephonically or in person for the interview, and why the applicant should be reappointed to the Commission . 4. If appointed, prior to starting the Commission term, appointees are required to attend a Commissioner Orientation and take the "Oath of Office." 5. Attend Advisory Body meetings once term begins. 6. Read the Commissioners’ Handbook. The Handbook is to be returned to the Town Clerk when the term is complete. Responsibility and Action: Town Council 1. Review applications. 2. For adult applicants – Interview applicants individually by Commission at a public meeting with all applicants present. For youth applicants – Town Council Selection Committee interviews applicants. 3. Determine if the incumbents not in attendance and having submitted a letter pursuant to this Policy should be considered for reappointment. 4. If there are limited applications for any vacancy to a Commission, the Mayor, on behalf of the Council, may request that the Town Clerk re-advertise the vacancy, reschedule the interviews, and notify all applicants of the new interview date. COMPLIANCE - GROUNDS FOR DISMISSAL A member may be removed from the Advisory Body prior to the end of his or her term by a three-fifths (3/5) vote of the Town Council and may not be reappointed for the following reasons: 1. Failure to attend Advisory Body meetings. 2. Failure to file the following documents required by the Fair Political Practices Commission (Adult Commissioners): a. Form 700 – Assuming Office, Annual, and Leaving Office when term is complete. b. Planning Commissioners are also required to complete AB 1234 Ethics Training and file the original certificate with the Town Clerk every two years. TITLE: Commission Appointments, Residency and Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A Quorum PAGE: 7 of 7 POLICY NUMBER: 2-11 3. Failure to comply with all Town Policies, Guidelines, and Handbooks . CONFLICT OF INTEREST Under the Fair Political Practice Act, an advisory board member has a disqualifying conflict of interest in a governmental decision if it is foreseeable that the decision will have a financial impact on his or her personal finances or other financial interests. In such cases, there is a risk of biased decision-making that could sacrifice the public’s interest in favor of the official’s private financial interests. To avoid actual bias or the appearance of possible improprieties, the public official is prohibited from participating in the decision. The Fair Political Practice Act does not prohibit an advisory board member from participating in a decision simply by virtue of holding a position as a board member, director, officer or employment with a nonprofit corporation. However, the Town strongly encourages that in the event that a decision concerns a nonprofit corporation for which an advisory board member is a board member, director, officer or employed with that nonprofit corporation, the person should recuse him or herself and at a minimum shall disclose the potential con flict of interest before any discussion and decision. APPROVED AS TO FORM: ________ Robert Schultz, Town Attorney