Ordinance No. 07-2009
ORDINANCE NO. 07-2009
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF CUPERTINO ADDING CHAPTER 2.17 TO THE CITY
ORDINANCE CODE RELATING TO CITY
COUNCIL/CITY STAFF RELATIONSHIPS
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CUPERTINO HEREBY ENACTS CHAPTER
2.17 OF THE CUPERTINO MUNICIPAL CODE TO READ AS FOLLOWS:
Chapter 2.17
City CounciUCity Staff Relationships
2.17.010 Preamble
After the City of Cupertino's incorporation, the City Council enacted Ordinance No. 106
creating and establishing the Council/City Manager form of government whereby the City
Council controls the administrative services of the City only through the City Manager. The
Council/Manager form of government is intended to provide the best of unencumbered
professional/technical staff input balanced with the collective oversight of elected officials.
Under the CounciUManager form of government neither the City Council, nor individual Council
members, can give orders to any subordinates of the City Manager. The City Manager takes his
or her orders and instructions from the City Council only when given at a duly held meeting of
the City Council. No individual council member can give any orders or instructions to the City
Manager. Although this provision has worked well over the years, a number of specific issues
and questions have arisen from time to time regarding the respective roles of the City Council
and City Manager due, in part, to the City's expanding involvement into a variety of new areas of
society. It therefore has become necessary and convenient for the City Council to delineate with
more specificity the respective roles of City Manager, the City Council and individual council
members.
2.17.020 Intent and Puroose
The intent of this chapter is to address and clarify the relationship between the City
Council, individual Council members, and city staff by:
a) Maintaining control and direction of the City by the City Council as a whole;
b) Insuring that City Council members have free access to the flow of any
information relative to the operation of the City and insuring that such information is
communicated by staff in full and with candor to the Council;
c) Ensuring that the Council decision making process benefits from the
unencumbered input and advice from the professional staff free from undue influence in staff
. decision making, formation of staff recommendations, scheduling of work, and executing
department priorities without intervention by individual Council members;
Ordinance No. 07-2009
d) Allowing city staff to execute priorities given by management and the City
Council and protecting city staff from undue influence from individual council members.
2.17.030 Council and Council members
2.17.031 Council Power
The City Council retains the full power to accept, reject, amend, or otherwise guide and
direct staff actions, decisions, recommendations, workloads and schedules, department priorities,
and the conduct of city business through the office of the City Manager. This power cannot be
delegated to individual council members, nor to committees composed of council members
consisting of less than a quorum of the City Council.
2.17.032 Individual Council members
Individual council members shall not attempt to influence staff decisions,
recommendations, workloads, and schedules, and department priorities without prior knowledge
and approval of the City Council.
2.17.033 Council Policy
If a Council member wishes to influence the actions, decisions, recommendations,
workloads, work schedules and priorities of staff, that member must prevail upon the City
Council to do so as a matter of council policy.
2.17.034 Information
Individual council members as well as the City Council as a whole, have complete
freedom of access to any information requested of staff (except information which is otherwise
protected by law from disclosure) and will receive the full cooperation and candor of City staff in
being provided with any requested information. Information sought by an individual council
member may, at the discretion of the City Manager, be automatically provided to the City
Council as a whole. In exercising this discretion, the City Manager will consider whether the
information is significant or new or otherwise not available to the Council or is of interest to the
Council.
2.17.040 Staff
2.17.041 Execution of Council Direction
The primary functions of City staff is the execution of Council policy and actions taken
by the Council as well as keeping the Council informed regarding the general operations of the
city.
2
Ordinance No. 07-2009
2.17.042 Undue Influence
City staff may take guidance and direction only from management or the City Council as
a whole. Staff is prohibited from accepting direction or being unduly influenced by individual
Council members to pressure staff members into making, changing or otherwise suppressing staff
decisions or recommendations, or changing departmental work schedules and priorities. Staff
members will report such attempts to influence them in confidence to the City Manager, who
may inform the City Council as a whole of such attempts. Any staff member who violates this
prohibition may be subject to disciplinary action at the discretion of the City Manager.
2.17.043 Timelv Resoonse
City staff will make every effort to respond in a timely and professional manner to all
requests made by individual council members for information or assistance, provided that, in the
judgment of the City Manager, the request is not of a magnitude either in terms of work load or
policy, which would require that it more appropriately be assigned to staff through the collective
direction of the City Council. In terms of making this judgment, the following guidelines should
be considered:
a) Is the request specific and limited in scope so that staff can respond without
altering other priorities and with only minimal delay to other assignments?
b) Is the request a "one time" work requirement, as opposed to an on-going work
requirement?
c) Does the response to a request require a significant allocation of staff resources
(generally defined as consisting of more than one staff person, or a single staff person working on
the request in excess of two hours)?
Publication Clause
The City Clerk shall cause this ordinance to be published at least once in a newspaper of
general circulation published and circulated in the City within 15 days after its adoption, in
accordance with Government Code Section 36933, shall certify to the adoption of this ordinance
and shall cause this ordinance and her certification, together with proof of publication, to be
entered in the Book of Ordinances of the Council of this City.
3
Ordinance No. 07-2009
INTRODUCED at a regular meeting of the Cupertino City Council the 4th day of
September, 2007 and ENACTED at a regular meeting of the Cupertino City Council the 18th day
of September, 2007, by the following vote:
Vote:
Ayes:
Noes:
Absent:
Abstain:
Members of the City Council
Wang, Lowenthal, Mahoney, Sandoval
None
None
None
ATTEST:
APPROVED:
~~l~
City Clerk
4