Law and Legislation Committee Meeting - April 2, 2024
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Law and Legislation Committee Meeting - April 2, 2024
The Sacramento City Law and Legislation Committee met on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at 11:02 a.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber. Chaired by Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, the committee reviewed two finance-related ordinances: one requiring short-term rental platforms to collect and remit Tourism Marketing District assessments, and another comprehensively updating the City Manager's purchasing and contracting authority. Both items were forwarded to the full City Council with amendments. The meeting adjourned at 11:35 a.m.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the Law and Legislation Committee meeting minutes from January 16, 2024, and February 6, 2024 (File ID: 2024-00297).
- Approved the Law and Legislation Log (File ID: 2023-01663).
- Received and filed Legislative Advocacy Correspondence (File ID: 2024-00753).
All consent items passed unanimously by a 3-0 vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were submitted on any agenda item.
Discussion Items
Item 4: Ordinance Amending Short-Term Rental (STR) Code
Finance Director Peter Coletto and Revenue Manager Jackie Rice presented an ordinance to require hosting platforms (e.g., Airbnb, VRBO) to collect and remit the Sacramento Tourism Marketing District (STMD) assessment at booking, aligning with existing transient occupancy tax collection. The ordinance also changes the 90-day aggregate limit for non-primary residence STRs from a calendar year to the life of the permit. Councilmember Jennings asked about exceptions for properties not using platforms and whether the owner remains liable if a platform fails to pay; staff confirmed owner responsibility. Vice Mayor Maple raised the question of including rentals over 30 days (e.g., traveling nurse housing) but acknowledged it is outside current scope. The committee unanimously forwarded the ordinance as amended to full Council.
Item 5: Ordinance on City Manager’s Purchasing and Contracting Authority
Procurement Manager Dayana Reyes Zanaska presented a comprehensive update to Title 3 of the City Code, last updated in 2010. Key changes include:
- Increasing micro-purchase threshold from $5,000 to $10,000 (aligning with federal guidelines).
- Increasing informal solicitation threshold to $10,000–$100,000 (requiring three quotes, one from a local business).
- Increasing formal solicitation threshold to $100,000+.
- Estimated $1.2 million in cost avoidance from adjusted thresholds.
- Allowing best-value awards for RFPs and cooperative purchasing (“piggybacking”) for contracts under $250,000.
- Adding a local business participation requirement—one quote from a local business for all informal solicitations.
- Cleaning up and consolidating procurement rules for transparency.
Councilmember Valenzuela requested several amendments: (1) require Council approval for cumulative contracts exceeding $250,000 to a single entity in a fiscal year; (2) require monthly public reporting of all contract decisions under $250,000; (3) align Section 3.56 with Section 3.04.010; (4) remove language allowing the City Manager to bypass procurement limits for emergencies over $250,000 (or impose a cap); (5) add janitorial contracting language consistent with California Labor Code 238.5 and prevailing wage for private sector janitors. Staff will distribute the proposed amendments for the full Council meeting. The committee unanimously forwarded the ordinance and amended procurement policies to Council with the noted suggested changes.
Key Outcomes
- Item 4 (Short-Term Rentals): Unanimous vote (3-0) to forward the ordinance to City Council for consideration.
- Item 5 (Purchasing Authority): Unanimous vote (3-0) to forward the ordinance and amended administrative Procurement policies to Council, with the Chair’s requested amendments to be incorporated before the April 30 Council meeting.
Meeting Transcript
Video stream. Okay, God, thank you. Good morning. Like to call this meeting of the city of Sacramento's Law and Legislation Committee to order. Will the clerk please call the role to establish a quorum? Thank you. Councilmember Maple. Here. Councilmember Jennings. Council Member Garda will be absent today. And Chair Valenzwela. I'm here. Vice Chair Jennings, will you please leave us in the land acknowledgement and pledge of allegiance? Absolutely. Please rise with the opening acknowledgment in honor of Sacramento's Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Lands. To the original people of this land, the Nission people, the Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains, Miwok, Patton, Whitton peoples, and the people of the Wilton's of Wilton's Wilton Red Terria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe. May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous people's history, contribution, and lives. Pledge. Pledge allegiance to the United States of the mayor. We have to justice for all. Thank you, Vice Chair Jennings. All right. We will start off today with our consent calendar, items one through three. Do either of my colleagues have any comments or questions on those items? I will second that. All right, moved and seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed abstention? That passes unanimously with the members present. Thank you. All right, we will move right along then to item four, an ordinance amending the city code related to short-term rentals. I see Peter getting at, so welcome, Peter and team. I'm P. Colletto, the finance director. Um, I'm really excited. We have two items, some finance items. It's kind of rare we get to come to Long Legs, but we have two finance items today. I'm really excited about. I'll fully acknowledge that the last few months we've been the bearer of bad news in finance, and today we have some good news to present to the committee. So first is the these are both measures really aimed to increase efficiency. So the first um involves our short-term rentals and really aligning how we collect uh assessments with how we're collecting the TOT, so this will make it easier to administer. Um it, you know, I really want to acknowledge uh visit SAC as well for bringing this idea to us. Um we're actually planning, and Jackie will talk a little bit more about it. We were working on some other amendments that we want to bring to the committee later. Uh this was such a good idea, we wanted to fast track it. So that being said, Jackie Rice, our revenue division director is going to tell you a little bit more about it. Okay. Good morning, members of the committee. My name is Jackie Rice, the revenue division manager.
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