The City of Santee, in San Diego county, is the most recent California city to adopt the charter city form of government. With a population of 56,068, 69.42% of Santee voters approved Proposition P in the November 4th, 2008 election.

The Santee City Council recently voted to support becoming a charter city to give Santee more authority over municipal affairs and better protection from intrusive state legislation, including unfunded state mandates. In approving Proposition P, Santee citizens reinforced their belief that a government based on the concept of local control and home rule is the most effective way to operate. A charter city derives its powers from the State Constitution, not the general laws of the state legislature. Santee will be able to create laws and regulations that better reflect their community and are not subject to powerful special interest groups at the state level. By approving Proposition P, the citizens of Santee reaffirmed strong local governance.

Charter cities have increased flexibility and discretion in their decision making. This flexibility can translate into a reduction of bureaucratic red tape and improvements in the City's delivery of service. Changes in the way the City contracts for goods and services could result in substantial savings, both in time and money. In a world where financial resources are limited, it is important to consider every opportunity to save taxpayer money. Changing to a charter city will not cost residents more money. There are no additional taxes involved with making this change.

LEARN MORE AND READ THEIR CHARTER: http://www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/sd/prop/P/

This morning The Signal published a story on our growing group. City Attorney Carl Newton stated that the city did not need to be a charter city to have an elected mayor. In addition the powers vested to an elected mayor would be determined by the charter adopted by voters. A charter can be customized to suit the specific needs of a city. As mentioned, in a charter city like Los Angeles, the mayor has veto power over the council. Mayor Frank Ferry introduced an elected mayor system before the council on two prior occasions and was voted down.

To be clear, cfemscv.org envisions a charter that would require anyone seeking the office of mayor to be or have been, a councilmember. The mayor would only have one vote equal to that of the four councilmembers. The reason for these two stipulations goes without saying.

At this time, issues that come before the council have a staff recommendation presented to them. When the hospital made its original request for expansion nearly five years ago, there were many errors and omissions that planners did not uncover. It took a citizen to bring these problems to light which resulted a far better project than that which was originally proposed and recommended by staff for council approval. Our council should be fully and accurately informed on both sides of every issue. A full time mayor would be a tremendous help to the city manager and staff in that regard.

READ THE STORY: http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/7208/

Did you know that voter turnout in April 2008 was 17.2%. Of the number of registered voters, 82,253, only 4,315 people actually went to the polls. The other 9.905 were absentee ballots. What did setting up all those polling places cost us?

The Mayor-Council government system, is one of two variations of government used for the most part in modern representative municipal governments. The Mayor-Council variant can be broken down into two main variations depending on the relationship between the legislative and executive branches.

In the weak-mayor form of the mayor-council government, the council possesses both legislative and executive authority. The council may appoint officials and must approve of mayoral nominations. The council also exercises primary control over the municipal budget. The mayor, though elected, has little real political power and less independence under this form, serves largely ceremonial duties, and may even be a member of the council. The weak-mayor plan comes from the belief that if politicians have few powers and many checks, then they can do relatively little damage. This form of government is ours now and most commonly used in small towns.

The strong-mayor form of mayor-council government consists of a popularly elected city mayor and city council respectively. In the strong-mayor form the mayor is given almost* total administrative authority and a clear, wide range of political independence, with the power to appoint and dismiss department heads without council approval and little public input. In this system, the strong mayor prepares and administers the city budget, although that budget often must be approved by the city council. In some strong-mayor governments, the mayor will appoint a CAO, sometimes called a city manager, who will supervise department heads, prepare the budget, and coordinate departments. This CAO is responsible only to the mayor. *If the City of Santa Clarita had an elected mayor, Ken Pulskamp would be CAO.

In California, there are two kinds of cities. Santa Clarita is a general law city...

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