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City Council

The People's Business: Oct. 8, 2020

Three posts in one week! What have y'all done to deserve this? Karma must be shining its bright, warm, comforting light upon you.

Anyhoo, yes, it's another preview -- this one running down a special Rules Committee meeting happening tomorrow afternoon.

If you'd like more detail on anything summarized here, click the agenda, then click on the item. Over on the right side of the page, you'll see links to a staff report and other pieces of supporting material.

Rules Committee -- Friday, Oct. 9

The Rules Committee meeting, chaired by Council President Georgette Gómez, begins at 1:30 p.m. The agenda contains three items:

  • Panda relaxingPerformance & Analytics Department Update: The team from the Performance and Analytics Department (PandA) will give the committee an overview of their mission and activities aimed at creating a more accessible, agile, and data-informed municipal government.

This informational item will focus attention on the City's Get It Done mobile app, which allows residents to report problems and request improvements for their neighborhoods, as well as do things like purchase trash containers and book appointments to apply for passports and dispose of hazardous waste. Staff will fill the committee in on recent updates to the app and new features in the works.

  • Ethics Commission Audit Manual: From the Ethics Commission comes a request to make changes to its Audit Manual, which sets procedures for auditing campaign, lobbying, and conflict-of-interest disclosure forms. When the manual was last updated in 2007, the Council required audits of 50 percent of candidate and ballot-measure committees that raised between $10,000 and $99,999 and 75 percent of candidate and ballot-measure committees that raised $100,000 or more.

To keep pace with inflation and increases in contribution limits, the Ethics Commission is recommending requiring audits of 50 percent of candidate and ballot-measure committees that raised between $15,000 and $49,999, 75 percent of those that raised between $50,000 and $99,999, and 100 percent of those that raised $100,000 or more.

  • Conflict of Interest Waivers: Committee members will consider a proposal to make a change to the Council's process of granting conflict-of-interest waivers. Attorneys aren't allowed to represent clients whose interests may conflict with another client’s or a former client’s interests -- unless the client whose interests are being potentially compromised agrees to waive the rule.

Under current Council policy, when the City of San Diego is asked to waive the rule, the City Attorney's Office notifies Council members. If four or more members agree, they can ask for a hearing on the waiver request before the full Council. The proposal coming forward on Friday would require all requests for conflicts-of-interest waivers that are within the purview of the Council to be docketed in the consent portion of the Council agenda and considered the full Council. 

Anyone can participate in this virtual meeting and make comments by dialing 619-541-6310 and entering the access code 877861 followed by # when the item you're interested in comes up (full call-in instructions). Watch the meeting on cable TV channel 24 or AT&T channel 99, or stream it online.

Next up will be a post on the full City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 13.


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