AgdaPkt 2008-07-07 Clsd and Reg - Laserfiche WebLink

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REPORT - .. . '-.' ~ . ~ . . ... '. . . . ....H . . .. ..... . . . 7A Page 1 To the Honorable Mayor and City Council Fr-om tbe Ct. Qf~rk July 7, 2008 SUBJECT Certification of Charter Amendment Initiative Petition; Direction to Staff Regarding Election Date and Election Resolutions. RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that the City Council, by motion, certify the results of the signature examination conducted by the City Clerk and the receipt issued on June 20,2008. Staff further recommends that the City Council discuss and provide staff direction about the date for the election and how the City desires handling certain election matters. Staff would then bring back to City Council the necessary election resolutions for City Council approval. BACKGROUND I. Sufficiency of the Initiative Petition On May 28, 2008, proponents of a Charter Amendment Initiative Petition submitted to the City Clerk's Office 477 petition sections. The City Clerk issued a receipt for such documents and began the raw count. On June 2, 2008, the raw count, prima facie review, was completed and the City Clerk found that 8,124 unverified signatures were contained on the petition sections submitted. Subsequently, the City Clerk engaged the services of the County of San Mateo Elections Office to perform a full verification of the signatures submitted on the Initiative Petition. One petition section, with 20 signatures, was not delivered to the San Mateo County Elections Office because it was deemed to be loose and unstapled (Elections Code, 99263). On Thursday June 19, 2008 at 4:09 p.m., the San Mateo County Elections Office released the results of its full review. Such results established that the petition sections contained 6,527 valid signatures and 1,578 invalid signatures. Based on this information the Initiative Petition qualified.1 Pursuant to Elections Code 9 9266 and 99114 the Certification of the petition is to be presented at the next regular City Council Meeting. Due to the time the San Mateo 1 At the City's request, the County Elections Office also found that 4,174 of the signatures were on petitions circulated by individuals who were not registered voters or eligible to be registered to vote in Redwood City, as required by Elections Code s 9261 and S 9209. However, due to the fact that such requirements have been found to be unconstitutional, the Petition Certification was issued by the City Cleric The City Clerk presented these facts for informational purposes only; the City and County had received calls from the public asking whether circulators were required to be voters or eligible to be voters of the City.