San Diego City Council Rules Committee Meeting - February 5, 2020
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San Diego City Council Rules Committee Meeting - February 5, 2020
The San Diego City Council Rules Committee met on February 5, 2020 at 10:15 AM. The committee discussed the 2020 work plan, received an informational presentation from the Funds Commission, considered an ordinance on disclosure of business interests, and received an update on the Get It Done program. Public comments were heard on non-agenda items and on the Get It Done program.
Public Comments & Testimony
- An unidentified speaker criticized the committee for being a "rubber stamp" and stated that rearranging deck chairs will not change the direction of a ship.
- Joy Singata spoke in support of open government, thanked Councilmember Montgomery for recommending a reprogrammed CGB fund item and Councilmember Campbell for using words like transparency, collaboration, and including all communities. She urged better collaboration, especially given the $90 million deficit.
- Joy Singata also testified during the Get It Done update, expressing support for the program but urging fiscal caution due to the upcoming budget deficit, requesting more data on implementation and costs.
Discussion Items
1. Committee's Priority Development of the 2020 Work Plan
Chair Gomez highlighted the committee's responsibilities including charter, open government, elections, ballot measures, boards and commissions, communications, and public outreach. Councilmember Montgomery moved to direct the chair to create a 2020 work plan. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
2. Informational Presentation: Funds Commission (Council Policy 00-26)
City Treasurer Liz Crea, Funds Commission Vice Chair John Peel, and investment consultant Mike Lavin presented an overview of the Funds Commission, its seven trust funds, and their investment performance. Key points:
- The commission oversees seven funds: Edwin A. Benjamin Memorial, F.E. Sargent Memorial, Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, Gladys Edna Peters Memorial, Jane Cameron, Philip L. Green Memorial, and Mount Hope Cemetery Perpetuity Fund.
- Investment policy: 65% stocks, 35% bonds for most funds; Mount Hope Cemetery has 35% stocks, 65% bonds due to charter requirements.
- Year-to-date 2019 returns: Los Peñasquitos Fund up 21%, outperforming its benchmark. Mount Hope Cemetery Fund up 15.7%.
- Over 10 years, the funds with higher equity allocation returned 8% annualized, outperforming 72% of peers.
- Councilmember Montgomery asked about public outreach for fund creation and requested information on disbursement impacts. Council President Pro Tempore asked about income distribution for Mount Hope Fund; Chair requested a breakdown of income distributions for all funds.
3. Proposed Ordinance on Disclosure of Business Interests (Charter Section 225)
George Katskaris and Sabelle Thompson from Real Estate Assets Department presented a proposed ordinance to implement the voter-approved Charter Section 225 (amended by Measure J in 2018). The ordinance requires disclosure of names and identities of persons receiving more than 10% of contract amount or owning more than 10% of the entity for contracts over certain thresholds. Chair Gomez moved to amend the threshold from $500,000 to $250,000 to match the mayor's contract authority, and to request monthly updates to council members on disclosures. The motion was seconded by Council President Pro Tempore and passed unanimously.
4. Get It Done Program Update
Kerry Bailey, Alison Hand, and Marcus Postraco from the Performance and Analytics Department presented an update. Highlights:
- The system has been expanded to nine departments since 2016.
- Mobile app downloaded nearly 100,000 times, with 12,500 active monthly users and 75 new users per day.
- Top 2019 reports: 72-hour violations (4,500), illegal dumping (3,300), graffiti (3,100), potholes (2,100), streetlights (1,900), and sidewalks (1,700).
- Average resolution times: 23 days for 72-hour violations, 23 days for graffiti, 91 days for streetlights, 119 days for sidewalks.
- New features: Encampment reporting (since December 2019, over 1,400 reports), container payment portal (12,000 online payments), Spanish mobile app and scooter reporting to launch in February 2020.
- Future plans: Expansion team, integration with parks and recreation, improved after-photos, and a potential 311 phone number.
- Councilmembers discussed response times, duplicate reports, district-level data, and the need for better communication with residents.
Key Outcomes
- Motion on 2020 Work Plan: Approved unanimously to direct the chair to create a 2020 work plan.
- Motion on Disclosure Ordinance: Approved unanimously with amendment to $250,000 threshold and monthly reporting requirement.
- Get It Done Update: Informational only; no action taken. Chair requested future breakdowns by district, public vs. private property, and duplicate reports.
Meeting Transcript
We will continue to have rubber stamp machines, simply agreeing to everything that is placed before them. And you will never change the direction of a ship by rearranging the deck chairs. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Joy Singata. Two minutes. Good afternoon, everyone. I love open government. And I decided to look a little closer at the rules committee and uh what is the rules committee? And three of the things that really stood out for me are communication, customer service, and public outreach. Those are three biggies. And we're doing a really you know, we're doing our best in those areas. There's always room for improvement. But one of the things uh I want to uh pull out of those three and and do two thank yous to council members on our uh first of all, I'll start with uh councilmember Montgomery. I wanted to apologize because yes uh day before yesterday I forgot to uh I didn't know really or I forgot that you were the one that really recommended that that attachment one come forward on the um the reprogrammed CGB fund. So thank you so much for that. And then I wanted to thank Councilmember Campbell for the three words she used. I can't remember the agenda item at City Council, but it was transparency, collaboration, and include all communities. And I don't think I'm saying number three just right, but it was you know get the big picture and include all the communities. So I I want to just as we go into the budget. I I'm really uh it's it feels like it's going to be a difficult one this year with the 90 million dollar deficit uh as far as we know. And I I just think that uh the word collaboration really pops out at me. I mean transparency and including everyone, we're on the right track for sure. I I think we really need to do better on collaboration. And recently I studied collaboration a bit with a Harvard Business Review uh report, and it's it's an art. So let's let's let's put a little more effort into collaboration. Thank you. Thank you. And that concludes our non-agenda public comment. Are there any comments from committee members? Don't see any. Um any comments from city attorney, IBA, Mayor's office. Right. Um are there any requests for continuance? Hearing no requests for continuance, we will move on to our discussion agenda. We do not have any consent items on today's agenda. We will begin with item number one, which is the committee's priority development of the 2020 committee work plan. Um I wanna I appreciate everybody's uh input on submitting your reports. Um council Councilmember Kircy, if you have any comments. Yeah, that's wrong and okay all righty I was gonna council member Montgomery. I was gonna wait for the presentation. Okay. We do not have a presentation. So I will make some comments. Um before I call on the committee members, uh we don't have a presentation. We will bring the final work plan to the committee that is that will be reflective of the input that has been submitted. Uh I just want to uh highlight uh the as one of the speakers uh it uh made reference. Um I really uh truly want to appreciate the work that you all put together. And I'm gonna try to really pull together from from your comments the road committee is responsibilities of as to oversee matters related to the city charter, permanent rules of council, open government, elections, ballot measures, annexations, boards and commissions, council initiative matters, communications, customer service, and public uh outreach. In my 2019, we we proposed a work plan for the committee that uh worked on streamlining some of these processes, um, the boards and commissions, which we will bring back and share uh and will be uh something that will hopefully be put forward uh continue and we will continue working on making sure that we're streamlining and having better clarity on boards and commissions.
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