Guest Opinion | Councilmember Jess Rivas: Your Opinion Matters Most in City’s Charter Reform Process

Do you think councilmembers should be allowed to serve forever? Do you think our campaign contribution limit should be lower than $5,500? Our city is undergoing a charter reform process and this is your chance to have a say in what will be on the November 2024 ballot.

What Even Is a City Charter?

Our city’s charter is like our local constitution. It sets the foundation for our city government, including its structure (i.e. city manager-council form of government), the powers and duties of various positions and departments, including the council, and many other important provisions. A key thing to note is that our charter can only be changed by you, the voters.

Why Now?

On September 29, 2022, the City Council held a special meeting to fill the District 3 Council seat left vacant by the untimely passing of our colleague John Kennedy. The meeting certainly left much to be desired. Residents subsequently held community meetings to discuss how their wishes were ignored and the Council later deemed it appropriate to consider changes to how vacancies are handled and to have a broader discussion about charter reform.

So How Does This All Work?

The Council decided to move forward with charter reform on three distinct tracks. Regardless of the track, the Council ultimately decides what is placed on the ballot for voters to consider.

First, the Council sought to address numerous minor technical issues that city staff had identified over the years for updating. This resulted in Measures R, S, and T, which you passed during the March 2024 primary election.

Second, the Council asked the Community Police Oversight Commission to study whether they would recommend any changes to our charter to improve oversight of our Police Department. They will make their recommendations to the Council shortly.

Third, the Council established a Charter Study Task Force to study issues that have to do with the Council itself. The topics for study are vacancies, term limits, campaign contribution limits, selection of vice mayor, and the timing of mayoral election. The task force is currently studying these topics, then will make recommendations to the Council, which we will consider and decide what to put on the November ballot.

Why Does It Matter?

We have not studied our charter this way in almost 25 years; the last charter study task force was convened in 1999-2000. Residents should seize this opportunity to shape their local government to make it what they want it to be.

There are two topics that come up repeatedly in my conversations with residents that often lead to dismay. The first is that there are no term limits for city councilmembers and the mayor. The second is that we did not have any campaign contribution limits until January 1, 2021, when we became subject to the state limit (currently $5,500).

When it comes to term limits, you may hear folks say that we don’t need them because we already have them – “Elections are term limits!” they’ll say. But elections are not term limits. And this turn of phrase fails to grapple with the very real power of incumbency, which manifests itself in countless ways, including: name recognition, seemingly default endorsements from powerful organizations that are unwilling to cross incumbents, and fundraising (from those same organizations and others). The forces of incumbency are so strong that here in Pasadena, only one councilmember has been unseated by a challenger in 37 years. This limits fresh perspectives and new ideas among our representatives.

As for campaign contribution limits, it is helpful to put things in perspective. Our city elections are orders of magnitude smaller than our state and federal races, yet we have the same or a higher limit than they do for individual contributions to candidates. Our federal congressional district, which has 463,835 voters, has a $3,300 limit. Our state assembly district has 325,764 voters and our state senate district has 622,148 voters, and both have a $5,500 limit. In contrast, my city council district only has 10,306 voters, yet the limit is also $5,500.

We clearly need to rightsize our contribution limits, which will have the added benefit of helping even the playing field between candidates. So many great Pasadenans have much to offer our city, but never seriously consider running for office because they don’t have wealthy personal networks that they can tap into to fundraise. We must do better.

How Can You Participate?

All details about the task force meetings, including agendas (posted 3 days before each meeting), are available at https://www.cityofpasadena.net/city-clerk/charter-study/. The remaining meetings will be held at 6 pm on the following Thursdays: April 11th, April 25th, May 9th, and May 23rd.

There are three ways to tell the task force what you think: (1) In person during the meetings, (2) Remotely via Zoom during meetings, and (3) Via email to cityclerk@cityofpasadena.net before the meetings. Each agenda has instructions on how to participate in person and via Zoom.

NOW is the time to tell the Charter Study Task Force what you think about these issues. Their recommendations, and the Council’s final decision on what to put on the ballot, should reflect your input. But that can only happen if you tell them what you think.