Stockton City Council Special Public Hearing on Public Information Office Charter Amendment – May 2, 2024
Stockton City Council Special Public Hearing on Public Information Office Charter Amendment – May 2, 2024
The Stockton City Council held a special public hearing on May 2, 2024, from 1:00 PM to 1:15 PM in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 425 N. El Dorado Street, Stockton, to receive proposed Charter amendment language for Articles XI and XI-A related to the Public Information Office and to solicit community feedback. Councilmembers Michael Blower, Brando Villapudua, Michele Padilla, Susan Lenz, Kimberly Warmsley, and Daniel Wright were present; Mayor Kevin J. Lincoln II was absent. Councilmember Lenz participated via teleconference from New York. No members of the public provided comments.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during the public comment period or the public hearing.
Discussion Items
- Staff summarized the process: a Charter Review Commission reviewed Articles XI and XI-A, delivered a recommendation on January 24, and the Charter Review ad hoc committee forwarded the proposed language on January 31. The meeting was the first of two required public hearings; the second will be held during the regular council meeting on June 4, and the final vote is scheduled for June 27 at 1:30 PM.
- The proposed changes update Article XI with minor edits, including adding “mayoral public information officer” to distinguish between the mayor’s public information officer and the city manager’s public information office, and correcting a cross-reference to Article XI-A. The major change is in Article XI-A, adding new Section 1153 to establish a mayoral public information officer who works in conjunction with the city manager’s office.
- Vice Mayor Kimberly Warmsley expressed support for the recommendation, citing the Moss Adams report showing that none of the comparable cities reviewed—Riverside, Bakersfield, Sacramento, Santa Ana, and Anaheim—have the mayor’s office overseeing the public information officer. She proposed renaming Section 1151 to “City of Stockton Public Information Office” and changing the Section 1153 language from “allowed access” to “provided information necessary,” removing the closing exception for extenuating circumstances.
- Councilmember Daniel Wright supported these changes, emphasizing that providing information is more workable than granting broad access to city systems.
- Councilmember Michele Padilla asked for clarification and was confirmed the hearing addresses only the two charter articles, not broader roles, responsibilities, or duties.
- Councilmembers Brando Villapudua and Susan Lenz agreed with the proposed language revisions; Lenz thanked the Charter Review Committee for its work.
Key Outcomes
- The Council directed staff to update the proposed Charter amendment language as discussed: Section 1151 would read “City of Stockton Public Information Office,” and Section 1153 would state that the mayoral public information officer “will be provided information necessary to fulfill his or her role in a reasonable and timely manner as coordinated through the City of Stockton Public Information Office,” without the prior “allowed access” language or the “extenuating circumstances” exception.
- No additional council-directed changes were made to Article XI beyond the minor updates already proposed.
- The second public hearing is scheduled for June 4, 2024, and the final City Council vote on the ballot language is scheduled for June 27, 2024, at 1:30 PM.
- The public hearing was closed and the special meeting adjourned at 1:15 PM.
Meeting Transcript
The special session for the Stockton City Council. Today is May 2nd. Madam City Clerk, if you can please take roll. Councilmember Padilla. Present. Councilmember Wright? Present. Councilmember Blauer. Present. Councilmember Lenz. Present. Councilmember Via Padua. Present. Vice Mayor Wormsley? Present. And Mayor Lincoln is absent. Thank you. Now we are moving to the agenda item, which is number two, which is public comment. City Clerk, do we have any comments from members of the public? We do not. All right. Moving right along to item number 3.1. Today we will receive recommendations of of a proposed charter amendment language and hold public hearing to solicit community feedback regarding charter articles 10 and 10A related to the public information acts office. I now declare the public hearing open. All right, good afternoon, Council. As you'd probably recall, of last fall, you instructed staff to um gather together a charter review commission specifically to review Articles 11 and 11A regarding the public information office. The Charter Review Commission did review the items. And they did it in quite detail. They were provided a significant amount of documentation. I really have to give them a lot of credit. They did provide a recommendation on January 24th that was taken to the Charter Review ad hoc committee. And on January 31st, the Charter Review ad hoc committee evaluated that recommendation, and the language that we're going to be looking at today would be the language that they forwarded. In order to put an amendment on the charter, the council does have to have two public hearings to solicit input from the public. This is your first public hearing. Your second one will be scheduled during a regular council meeting on June 4th. At the publication time of this PowerPoint, we didn't have a date for your final vote. Your final vote will be on June 27th at 1 30 p.m. And at that time was whenever you're going to be solidifying that language. So the updates to Article 11 are pretty minor. We added in the word mayoral public information officer in order to distinguish between the city manager's public information office and the mayoral public information officer for the mayor. So you see that reflected here, as well as there was a change that we needed to correct to just because it did not occur during the last update. The section should have read it to Article 11A to begin with. We're adding the A in now so it actually makes sense. Your major change is actually on Article 11A. You'll see here that we made adjustments in order to again differentiate between the city managers run public information office and the separate position of the mayoral public information officer. And I'm going to go ahead and read out the text for the public of section 1153, which is the entirely new section we're adding in. So election 1153, mayoral public information officer reads. With the exception for extenuating circumstances where access cannot be afforded. And that summarizes the changes that we have proposed for this measure. Thank you, Vice Mayor.
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