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<br />2 <br /> <br />Under the City Charter, the City Council has specific authority to modify City elections in <br />order to comply with state law. This includes lengthening or shortening the terms of <br />current City Council members by up to 12 months in order to comply with changes in <br />state law. In order to adhere to the requirements of SB 415, on October 17, 2016, the <br />City Council discussed a recommendation by the SB 415 Council Ad Hoc Committee. <br />The Committee recommended that the City Council introduce an ordinance to extend <br />the terms of each current Council member by an additional 12 months, moving the <br />November 2017 election to November 2018, and the November 2019 election to <br />November 2020. In addition to the Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendation, the Council <br />discussed a number of alternatives to comply with SB 415, which included holding <br />elections in 2017 and 2019 with newly elected council members serving three or five <br />year terms to make the transition from odd to even year elections. Furthermore, <br />Council received public comment from over thirty individuals who attended the meeting <br />who were in favor of holding elections in 2017 and 2019 and opposed current Council <br />Members extending their terms by an additional year. <br />The Council voted to continue the SB 415 item to a future meeting. The Council <br />requested additional information regarding the feasibility and cost impacts of holding all <br />mail elections in 2017 and 2019, and confirming election plans for the remaining <br />jurisdictions with overlapping elections that had not acted as of the October 17, 2016 <br />election. <br />In order to inform the community of the Council’s consideration of how to comply with <br />SB 415, City staff established an SB 415 blog series to provide additional information, <br />asked the public to share comments by emailing sb415@redwoodcity.org, and <br />promoted this agenda item and meeting date using the City’s social media platforms. <br />ANALYSIS <br /> <br />What are other jurisdictions doing in San Mateo County to comply with SB 415? <br />Prior to the passage of SB 415, there were 38 jurisdictions scheduled to hold odd year <br />elections in San Mateo County. To date, 24 jurisdictions have addressed SB 415 <br />compliance including: the City of Belmont, Belmont-Redwood Shores School District, <br />City of Brisbane, City of Burlingame, Coastside County Water District, Hillsborough City <br />School District, City of Foster City, Jefferson Elementary School District, Mid-Peninsula <br />Water District, Millbrae Elementary School District, City of Millbrae, Town of Portola <br />Valley, Portola Valley School District, Redwood City School District, San Bruno Park <br />School District, San Carlos School District, San Mateo-Foster City School District, City <br />of San Mateo, San Mateo County Community College District, San Mateo Union High <br />School District, Sequoia Union High School District, City of South San Francisco, <br />Woodside Elementary School District and the Town of Woodside. <br />8.B. - Page 2