Attachment 2 - Red-lined Policy 2-11ATTACHMENT 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
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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
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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.
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Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A
Quorum
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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
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Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A
Quorum
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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.
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Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A
Quorum
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POLICY NUMBER:
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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.
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Attendance Requirements, and Establishing A
Quorum
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POLICY NUMBER:
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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