League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Santa Clara County, CA November 8, 2011 Election
	Measure A Elected Mayor City of Sunnyvale Charter Amendment - Majority Approval Required Fail: 6,331 / 36.66% Yes votes ...... 10,937 / 63.34% No votes See Also: Index of all Measures

Arguments For Measure A

Arguments Against Measure A

The performance of the Mayor affects us all. The Mayor's leadership skills determine whether critical projects, like the downtown, proceed smoothly, and whether the Mayor stands up for our City against outside interests. The Mayor's management skills determine whether citizens can have their say at meetings without sitting there all night. The Mayor's priorities strongly influence which services get funded. The Mayor is the most important elected official in Sunnyvale. Yet the City Charter denies the public the right to choose the Mayor. That choice is made by as few as four of the seven Councilmembers, with only themselves eligible. Virtually all of the discussion takes place behind the scenes, featuring secret deals and pressure from special interests outside the city. To fix this problem and strengthen City government, we must change the Charter so that the Mayor is elected by voters rather than by incumbent Councilmembers. A directly-elected Mayor is accountable to all the voters, not just to his/her friends on the Council. Candidates for the position would have to campaign on their qualifications. Voters would be more engaged, and the winning candidates would better reflect the community's needs and priorities. With a four-year term, Mayors would become more experienced and would represent the City more effectively. The role of the Mayor would not change under Measure A. Only the term and the selection method would change. The Measure includes a lifetime limit of two terms. The current process for selecting Sunnyvale's Mayor is essentially a game of musical chairs, where the voters don't even get to hear the music, much less play it. It's time to trust the voters of Sunnyvale. A "YES" vote on Measure A restores this important power to the people--to you. s/ Geoffrey R. Ainscow Member, 2006 Charter Review Committee s/ Carol L. Ludlow Vice Chair, 2011 Charter Review Committee s/ Willis W. Ritter, Jr. Member, 2011 Charter Review Committee s/ Gail L. Swegles s/ Carol L. Weiss Chair, 2011 Charter Review Committee Rebuttal to Arguments For For 100 years, Sunnyvale's council/city manager government has served our residents well. We are nationally recognized as a well run city. Now, the proponents make a "big city" claim that a separately elected mayor is somehow better. Special interest politics, expensive special elections, and more partisan political bickering -- this is not what Sunnyvale needs. Sunnyvale cannot afford hundreds of thousands of dollars in new special elections. Nothing would be more damaging than permitting a torrent of special interest money to buy campaign victories for separately elected mayors. Nothing would be more paralyzing than having the mayor and council competing for voters' attention instead of collaborating on our problems. But that is exactly what happens if Measure A passes. This is why multiple citizen charter review committees have rejected this measure. This is why voters already rejected this proposal once. This year's Citizen Charter Review Committee put it best when it rejected this proposal yet again: we already trust our council to make decisions of great importance to us. If we cannot trust our council to pick its own leader, what can we trust them with? Don't fall for their "choose your mayor" gimmick. Don't give special interests the power they want. Don't give councilmembers this term limit loophole they want. Don't be fooled by this self-serving proposal. Trust what already works very well. Vote NO on Measure A. For more information, visit http://www.no-on-A.org. [Note: the "argument against" erroneously claimed two previous votes, but Sunnyvale has had only one vote.] s/ James R. Griffith Vice Mayor, City of Sunnyvale s/ Richard Napier Former Mayor, City of Sunnyvale s/ Kenneth Olevson Member, 2011 Charter Review Committee s/ Howard Chuck Member, 2006 Charter Review Committee s/ Nancy Tivol Chair, Citizens for Good Government, No on A

Here we go again. For a third time, the voters of Sunnyvale are being asked to decide on a separately elected mayor, after being rejected twice before by the voters, and after yet another charter review committee recommended against it. Why defy the citizens' recommendations? The answer is in who stands to benefit - the elected mayor, not the taxpayers. At a time when the city is cutting millions of dollars from the budget, the city council put this costly measure on the ballot. It was hastily thrown together without a real discussion of the costs, including expensive special elections. It's just a matter of time before a separately elected mayor starts requiring additional staff and more travel budget. Such demands have occurred in the past, and these costs have not been considered. Worse, this proposal is a blatant end-run around term limits, allowing a councilmember to serve 16 consecutive years, instead of the current 8-year limit. It disrupts the smooth functioning of the collective leadership that makes Sunnyvale one of the best-run cities in the nation. It creates conflict between the mayor's office, the city council, and city staff. It gives special interests a greater voice in selecting the mayor through campaign money. It makes the mayor less accountable to the taxpayers and more accountable to the special interests that fund campaigns. It provides no political benefit. Santa Clara and Milpitas receive no additional federal or state funding, and no greater regional representation because those voters separately elect their mayors. It encourages personal ego to rule over the public good. Let's tell our elected officials, once again, that we want what's best for the taxpayers and not just what's best for them. Vote no on Measure A. For more information, visit http://www.no-on-A.org. s/ Melinda Hamilton Mayor, City of Sunnyvale s/ Dave Whittum Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale s/ Dianne McKenna Former Mayor, City of Sunnyvale s/ Terry Fowler Member, 2011 Charter Review Committee s/ Laura Babcock Former Sunnyvale Planning Commissioner Rebuttal to Arguments Against The opponents' "facts" are false. Sunnyvale has voted on this issue only once before--20 years ago. 82% of Sunnyvale voter registrations are new since then. This change would cost the taxpayers nothing. One council seat would simply be replaced by the Mayor's seat. No special elections would be required. The Mayor's seat would come up for election every four years, just like other council seats. The term limit for the changed seat would actually be strengthened. While council seats have a limit of two consecutive terms, the Mayor's seat would have a lifetime limit of two terms. The Mayor is not currently accountable to the taxpayers at all, so direct election couldn't possibly make the Mayor less accountable. In fact, the Mayor would become accountable to us for the first time. Their predictions are baseless. Electing the Mayor would not increase budget or staff, disrupt City functioning, increase the influence of outside interests, or create conflict. None of these things has happened in the nearby cities that have changed to a directly-elected mayor--and none of those cities has chosen to switch back. Our prediction: outside lobbying calls to Councilmembers telling them how to vote for Mayor would stop. The opponents are right about one thing. We should tell politicians that we want what's best for us, not them. Examine the lists of signers and decide for yourself which group is looking out for Councilmembers and which is looking out for you. http://www.chooseyourmayor.com s/ Geoffrey R. Ainscow Member, 2006 Charter Review Committee s/ Carol L. Ludlow Vice Chair, 2011 Charter Review Committee s/ Willis W. Ritter, Jr. Member, 2011 Charter Review Committee s/ Gail L. Swegles s/ Carol L. Weiss Chair, 2011 Charter Review Committee

Full Text of Measure A

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CITY CHARTER OF THE CITY OF SUNNYVALE The City Council of the City of Sunnyvale, on its own motion, submits to the electors the following amendments to the City Charter of the City of Sunnyvale. The City Council has called a Special Municipal Election to be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2011, for the purpose of voting on the City Charter amendments. The proposed amendments to the City Charter of the City of Sunnyvale follow the statement of the measures. The provisions of the City Charter proposed to be deleted are printed as strike out type, and the new provisions proposed to be added to the City Charter are printed as underlined type. CITY OF SUNNYVALE CHARTER MEASURE A Shall Charter Sections 600, 601, 602, and 605 be amended to change the current Council-appointed Mayor to a directly-elected Mayor for a 4-year term, to provide an 8-year lifetime term limit for a directly-elected Mayor, and to provide that service as Mayor is not counted toward Council term limits and a person can serve a combined total of 16 years as Mayor and Council member in a twenty-year period? YES ______ NO ______ If Measure _____ carries, the City Charter of the City of Sunnyvale, shall be amended by amending Section 600, 601, 602 and 605, of Article VI (The Council), to read as follows: Section 600. Elective Officers of the City. The elective officers of the City shall consist of a City Council composed of seven members, including the office of Mayor. Section 601. Term and Election. Each member of the City Council and the Mayor shall be elected from the City at large at the General Municipal Election for a term of four years. The term shall commence at the first regular meeting in January, at which the City Council shall certify the election results, and shall continue until a successor is elected and qualified. The office of each member of the Council and Mayor is a separate elective office to be separately filled at any election. The person elected at any election to the office designated "Mayor" shall be deemed elected both as Mayor and as a member of the Council. Although the Mayor is a Council member, his or her election does not change the number of Council members from seven. No person shall be a candidate for both Mayor and a City Council seat at the same election. However, an incumbent member of the City Council may run for the elective office of Mayor, and the Mayor may run for the separate office of Mayor or other City Council seat. At no time shall a member of the Council, including the Mayor, hold more than one City elective office. The person receiving the highest number of all the votes cast for a particular elective office at any election shall be deemed and declared elected to that office. Each Council seat shall be designated by a number from 12 through 7 and shall be known as "Councilmember Seat Number_____." Commencing with the 2013 General Municipal Election, seat 1 shall be designated as the Mayor's seat. The designation given to each elective office shall be used in all elections, nomination papers, certificates of election, and all other papers pertaining to such office, and to designate the incumbent of such office. Seats numbered 1, 2, and 3 shall be filled at the General Municipal Election held in 2013 1977 and every fourth year thereafter. Seats numbered 4, 5, 6, and 7 shall be filled at the General Municipal Election held in 1979 and every fourth year thereafter. The Mayor's seat shall be filled at the General Municipal Election held in 2013 and every fourth year thereafter. Section 602. Qualifications. No person shall be eligible to hold office as a member of the City Council unless he/she shall be a registered voter of the City at the time of his/her nomination or appointment. No person shall be a candidate for more than one elective office. No incumbent member of the Council shall be a candidate for a Council seat other than the one which that person then holds. No person shall be eligible to serve as a member of the Council for more than two successive four-year elective terms. Any person who has served two successive four-year elective terms shall not serve again until at least four years have passed since that person last held office. Any person who fills an unexpired term of not more than two years in length shall, however, be eligible to serve two successive four-year terms after the expiration of the unexpired term which he/she filled. Any person who serves a four-year elective term and is either not re-elected or does not run for re-election for a second successive term is eligible to serve after two years have passed since that person last held office as a Councilmember but is not eligible to run for a second successive term. Any person may serve as a Councilmember for eight years in any twelve-year period, unless appointed to serve an unexpired term of less than two years in length as provided in this section. The office of elected Mayor, to be filled from the City at large, is a separate office from the Council and solely for purpose of term limits is not a Council office nor Council. Consequently, time served in such office of elected Mayor is not time served on the Council and time served on the Council is not time served in such office of elected Mayor. No person shall be eligible to serve as Mayor for more than two four-year elective terms in a lifetime. Any person may serve as a Councilmember and Mayor for a total of sixteen years in any twenty-year period, unless appointed to serve an unexpired term of less than two years in length as a Councilmember as provided in this section. Section 605. Presiding Officer. Mayor. At the first regular meeting in January, at which the City Council shall certify the election results, following each General Municipal Election, and at the first regular meeting in January every two years thereafter, the City Council shall select one of its members as itsThe Mayor shall be the Council's presiding officer., who shall have the title of Mayor. Such selection shall be by motion of the City Council. The Mayor shall have a voice and vote in all its proceedings. He/she shall be the official head of the City for all ceremonial purposes. He/she shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by this Charter or as may be imposed by the City Council consistent with his/her office. The Mayor shall serve in such capacity for a term of two years from and after which the appointment is made, and until a successor is selected; provided, that a person can continue to serve in the capacity of Mayor only while that person remains as a member of the City Council. The office of Mayor shall become and be deemed vacant immediately upon the incumbent ceasing to be a member of the City Council. In the event of a vacancy in the office of Mayor, the City Council shall officially declare the seat vacant within thirty days and call a Special Municipal Election for the purpose of filling such vacancy. shall select one of its members to serve as Mayor for the remainder of the unexpired term. The Mayor may be removed from such office prior to expiration of his/her term by a motion of the City Council adopted by the affirmative votes of at least five members of the City Council.