The committee that will be recommending rules and regulations for a Fremont city charter met for the second time on March 30. City attorney Rafael Alvarado and assistant city manager Christina Briggs were the main meeting facilitators.
The Charter Advisory Committee (CAC) talked about other forms of government. The city is currently a council-manager form of government. Committee member Brad Hatton asked if there will be additional costs when considering a blended form of government.
The city attorney said that if there is a form of government where the city council can appoint other positions, like department heads, there would be additional costs. Those costs include hiring a consultant to manage the hiring of the other positions. The city manager is currently responsible for hiring city department heads.
Member Ben Yee suggested that the city council and mayor should be involved in hiring at least the vast majority of department heads. Member Sathya Sankaran suggested the mayor-council form of government because the responsibilities would be shared between them.
Some members suggested writing down everyone’s ideas on a whiteboard as a means of transparency to the public. The majority of CAC decided to not have a committee chair because the workflow of the meeting with city staff facilitating and answering questions is productive. The committee voted to extend the meeting another 30 minutes for future meetings, making the meetings scheduled from 5 to 7pm.
There was discussion on whether or not they have enough time to discuss all city charter topics. Staff said they are doing their best to give the committee enough time to discuss each topic, but reminded the group that they committed to the accelerated work plan that involves drafting a full charter in six weeks.
City staff said during their presentation that CAC can decide on making a recommendation to form or not to form a city charter.
