Visalia’s City Charter was adopted in 1923. It was updated in 1974, but only one change is obvious in the text. “Article XVI Miscellaneous Provisions Section 21. (Deleted November 4, 1974)” If anything else was changed, there are no indications in the current Charter. (That was a prohibition on city employees supporting a candidate for municipal office. I suspect that runs afoul of Constitutional rights): ARTICLE XVI. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
(Section 21. Neither the City Manager nor any person in the employ of the City shall take any active part in securing, or shall contribute money toward the nomination or election of any candidate for a municipal office.)

As I’ve been reading through it, I have some questions. They were originally triggered by the sections dealing with the city library, which we no longer have (it’s now a branch of the Tulare County Library). There are a few other things, too.

Ready to dive in? Click on ‘more’.

Visalia City Charter

Article IV
Officers, Deputies and Employees and Their
Compensation

Section 1. The officers of the City of Visalia shall be five members of the Council,
members of the Board of Education, five Library Trustees,…

How do we reconcile the Board of Education, and Library Trustees? Does VUSD Board of Education satisfy this requirement for the BOE? What about Library Trustees? Without some enabling text, how, and did we, transfer the city library trustees to the county?

Article VI
Legislative. The Council. Powers and Duties
Section 2
… Special meetings may be called by the Mayor, by two
members of the Council, or by the City Manager, but notice of every such
meeting must be served personally upon every member not joining in the call,
and upon the City Manager, if not called by him, or left at the place of residence
or of business of each person to be so served, not less than two hours before the
time of such special meeting. Such notice must state the subject or subjects to be considered or acted upon and must state the time of such meeting.

How does this comport with the Brown Act, and noticing requirements?

Section 5. Certain Powers and Duties Enumerated: The Council shall–
(5) Appoint a City Attorney, a City Manager, a City Clerk, and five Library
Trustees.

Does the City still appoint five library trustees?

Section 12. Advertising: All official advertising of the City shall be done in a
newspaper of general circulation as defined by the laws of the State of California,
which newspaper shall be published in the City of Visalia, and shall be designated
by the Council as the official newspaper. The Council shall annually call for bids
for such advertising, and a contract therefor shall be awarded to the lowest
responsible bidder; provided, that the Council may reject all bids and may again
call for bids; and provided further that no defect or irregularity in proceedings
taken under this section, or failure of the Council to designate an official
newspaper, shall invalidate any publication, where the same is otherwise in
conformity to law or this charter.

Do we do this? Call for bids?

Article VII
City Attorney

Section 2. It shall be his duty when directed by the Council to prosecute on
behalf of the people, all criminal cases for violations of this Charter and of City
ordinances, and to attend to all suits and other matters to which the City is a
party or in which the City may be legally interested.

“all criminal cases for violations… of City ordinances.”

Does the City Attorney file criminal cases, or is this handled by the County District Attorney?

Article VIII
City Manager

Section 1. The City Manager need not be a resident of the State of California at
the time of his appointment. His powers and duties shall be:

Pronouns should be gender neutral.

Article IX
Fiscal Administration

Section 11. Tax Rate:

(1) For the support and maintenance of free public libraries and reading rooms,
Thirty Cents ($.30).
(2) For the support and maintenance of parks, playgrounds and recreation
centers, Thirty Cents ($.30).

How is this handled with the County processing property taxes? Is this a budget categorization? Do we route $.30 per $100 assessed valuation to the County Library for the Visalia branch? Do we calculate the budget for parks et al at this rate?

Section 14. City Promotion:
…that the aggregate
expenditures from property taxes for all of said purposes shall not exceed in one
fiscal year the sum of four ($.04) cents on each One Hundred Dollars ($100) of
the assessed value of property within the City.

Does the city use this to calculate spending for promotion?

Article X
Department of Education
Section 1. Board of Education: The control of the Public School Department of
the City of Visalia, including the whole of the Visalia Unified School District, shall
be vested in a Board of Education, which shall consist of members elected from
the district at large.
Section 2. The powers and duties of the Board of Education shall be such as are
prescribed by the Constitution and Laws of the State of California.

This is satisfied by VUSD Board of Education?

Article XI
City Library

Section 1. Library Trustees: The Board of Library Trustees shall each serve for a
term of four years and until his successor is appointed and qualified; provided,
that at the first appointment under this Charter, two trustees shall be appointed
for two years, and three trustees for four years and until their successors are
appointed and qualified. In case of a vacancy, the same shall be filled by
appointment by the Council for the remainder of the term then vacant.
Section 2. The Board of Library Trustees shall have the power and duty to:
(a) Act in an advisory capacity to the Council and the City Manager in all matters
pertaining to library administration;
(b) Formulate and recommend annually to the Council and the City Manager a
budget for library services;
(c) Act in an advisory capacity to the Council and the City Manager regarding
provision of library services for the inhabitants of the City.

How is the City doing this?

Article XIV
Franchises

Section 2. Any person desiring any franchise or a renewal of any franchise, may
file with the City Clerk a written application therefor, accompanied by a cash
deposit of One Hundred ($100) Dollars…

Is this being done? If it is, should the city raise the fee to reflect inflation since 1923? $100 1923 would be approx. $1,900 today.

Section 5. At the time of opening the sealed bids, any responsible person, firm or
corporation may bid for said franchise or renewal of franchise,…
before the making of such award deposit with
the City Clerk at least ten per cent of the amount of his bid, and if such
successful bidder be not the applicant, the sum of One Hundred ($100) Dollars in
addition to his bid shall be deposited by him at the same time,…

another place to adjust for inflation? And a mechanism to raise the fee, adjusted for inflation.

Article XVI
Miscellaneous Provisions

Section 2. All general laws of the State applicable to municipal corporations, now
or hereafter enacted, and which are not in conflict with the provisions of this
Charter or with ordinances or resolutions adopted in pursuance of this Charter,
shall be applicable to the City.

Is this saying if state law conflicts with this charter, the charter is supreme?

We’re 52 years into the current edition of the City Charter. It may be time to update it. Like my previous post said, that’s a can of worms, and I’m sure the city staff who would have to deal with a Charter Amendment process wouldn’t look forward it. I think it might need to be done, though.