TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
City Attorney, Quinn M. Barrow
Liza Tamura, City Clerk
George Gabriel, Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Request by Councilmember Montgomery to Discuss the Impacts of Senate Bill 415 and the Possibility of Changing the March 5, 2019 General Municipal Election to Another Date.
DISCUSS AND PROVIDE DIRECTION
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
At the request of Councilmember Montgomery, discuss the impacts of Senate Bill 415 and provide direction on possibly changing the March 5, 2019 General Municipal Election to another date.
Body
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
No fiscal implications associated with the recommended action. However, should the City Council direct staff to draft the necessary ordinance and/or resolutions to change the election date for Council consideration at a future meeting, an assessment of election costs will be performed for a standalone general municipal election versus a consolidated general municipal election with Los Angeles County.
BACKGROUND:
The California Voter Participation Rights Act, known as Senate Bill 415 (SB 415), was passed on September 1, 2015. This legislation prohibits a local government from holding an election on any date other than a statewide election date, if doing so in the past resulted in a lower voter turnout. The law went into effect on January 1, 2018.
SB 415 requires cities with insufficient voter turnout to either change their election dates to June or November of even years, or prior to January 1, 2018, adopt a plan to consolidate its election with the statewide election no later than the November 8, 2022 statewide general election. The public policy behind SB 415 is to address waning civic engagement in politics as illustrated by declining voter turnout in federal, state, and municipal elections. The legislative analysis asserts that one major contributi...
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