Torrance Measure TC Would Reform City Charter, Increase Council Pay – Daily Breeze

The general election on Tuesday, November 5 is quickly approaching and with it the deadline for Torrance voters to determine whether they want to support a sweeping overhaul of the city charter, along with some changes to council member compensation.

Measure TC was placed on the ballot by the City Council in July, after Torrance held four public hearings and held a series of other meetings to determine what would be included in the measure later this year.

The measure, which will require a simple majority to pass, focuses largely on updating the Torrance City Charter, the living document that governs city operations and can only be changed with voter approval.

Torrance’s original charter was established in 1946 and has been updated several times between then and 2020, according to a February report. city ​​staff report.

“The main reason for this request is to update the bylaws,” said Third District Councilman Asam Sheikh during a council session on Tuesday, July 16. “There is some verbiage in the letter that is literally illegal. It is time to make a change that reflects our current situation.”

A large part of Measure TC would allow Torrance to update outdated language and implement provisions aimed at good government reform, including lobbying disclosure, ethics training for city officials, updated transparency on the spending of public funds and more.

The measure, for example, would update references to City Council members, city clerk and other positions to use gender-neutral language, rather than he/she pronouns.

“Under our current bylaws, some of our council members would not be allowed to be council members because they are women,” City Attorney Patrick Sullivan said during a Tuesday, July 2, session. “So we cleaned it up and made it gender neutral.”

Other outdated language in the current charter includes a provision requiring the city clerk to notify the council by “telegraphic communication” if a meeting is canceled, for example.

“I don’t think (the city clerk) has a telegraph in her office, so taking it out and changing it to email, text message or other electronic communication would be sufficient,” Sullivan said.

But in addition to the language updates, Measure TC would also implement more modern governance standards that Torrance would need to follow.

According to a staff report, a new section would be added to the bylaws that would give the City Council additional control over local elections. In other words, the council could determine whether Torrance should conduct voting by mail, ranked choice or instant runoff voting, or other election methods.

The measure, however, would not change when Torrance holds its elections. As things stand, local general elections align with state primaries. During presidential elections, local elections are held in March; during non-presidential elections, they are held in June.

Measure TC would also add new grounds for determining whether a council member has left office, including a conviction for a felony, “a crime involving moral turpitude,” a crime involving the person’s official duties, and failure to attend council meetings.

Other good government reforms included in Measure TC include provisions to increase the transparency of public meetings and ensure that the public can participate in the local government process, according to the staff report.

Measure TC would also require lobbyists to disclose their activities to the city clerk and implement revolving-door restrictions on elected officials once they leave office.

The TC Measure also:

• Implement anti-nepotism provisions to prevent city councilors or department heads from hiring their family members for salaried jobs.
• Require council members, board members, commissions and committees to complete ethics training every two years.
• Require Torrance to adopt its annual budget by June 30 and post a copy of the budget on the city website.
• Clarify when independent audits of city finances must be conducted and that they must be filed with the city clerk and posted on the city website.
• Clarify the powers of the City Council, boards, committees and commissions.
• Preventing elected and high-level municipal officials from negotiating future employment/business opportunities with an entity that has an issue pending for a vote from a body of which they are voting members.
• Preventing former city officials from directly communicating with their former department, board, commission or committee in an attempt to influence a decision.
• Implement provisions to prevent conflicts of interest and illegal contracts for elected officials and city employees.
• Removes obsolete references to Torrance Unified School District from letter; TUSD is already an independent entity with its own elected board, budget and current state legislation.

A complete copy of the proposed amendments to the City Charter is available on the city clerk’s elections page. website.

However, by far the most controversial element included in Measure TC is a proposed increase in compensation rates for City Council members.

As it stands, Torrance aldermen earn $100 a month (or $1,200 a year), a pay rate that hasn’t changed since 1956.

Measure TC, if passed, would increase, as well as restrict, council member compensation to align with the state minimum wage, which is currently $16 per hour, or $33,280 per year.

“For the avoidance of doubt, council members’ monthly compensation will be calculated by taking the California state minimum wage and multiplying by 2,080 hours to obtain the annual amount and dividing the annual amount by 12 to obtain the monthly compensation.” in accordance with the proposed revisions to the letter.

The change would not affect the job classification of council members. In other words, it would not make them city employees or hourly workers, and it would not entitle them to any overtime pay.

While the majority of the City Council voted to include the compensation element in the entirety of Measure TC, two dissenting members argued against the potential wage increase entirely, while others argued that a component of the measure could put in jeopardizes the approval of Measure TC.

“I don’t want this issue to sink all the other recommendations that need to move forward,” District 2 Councilwoman Bridgett Lewis said during the July 16 meeting. “I still have concerns that this may be the reason why the entire measure fails.”

But it would cost the city a little more than $390,000 to place two ballot measures on the November ballot, according to the city clerk, rather than simply bundling all the charter changes into a single ballot measure.

Fourth District Councilwoman Sharon Kalani, one of two councilmembers who voted against including the proposed wage increase in Measure TC, argued that the proposal came too soon after the passage of Measure SST: a local tax on sales of 0.5% used to fund city services, which was approved voting in 2022.

“Very recently, we went to the public and said the city is in dire need of revenue. We passed SST (Measure) – our residents believed us,” Kalani said. “I think it’s too early to compensate each and every one of us, $33,000, more than a quarter of a million dollars. “I just don’t feel comfortable with it.”

Ward 6 Councilman Jeremy Gerson, also a dissenter, said he believes compensation should not be what attracts people to seek public office.

“When I ran for school board, people asked me why I decided to take a $92,000 pay cut. It was a higher calling, the same as when I came here: I came here to serve,” Gerson said. “Compensation should not be what drives people into this position; It must be the desire to serve the community.”

But the rest of the five council members and the majority in favor of the proposed pay increase argued that it was less about their own financial benefit and more about helping to open the halls of public service to a broader range of people.

“In fact, I am the councilor who would benefit the least from this since my mandate will be removed in two years,” said Fifth District representative Aurelio Mattucci, “however, I am pushing because to attract younger and older people working class, we need to at least alleviate some of their financial burden.”

A City Council seat, Mattucci and other council members said, is a full-time commitment. Although most councilors have jobs outside the city to support themselves, it may not be a feasible position for people who are not independently wealthy.

“I can afford to be here, and that’s why I’m here: I’ve been here for six years,” Mattucci said. “But the next person who takes my place may not be in the same position. “It’s not really about money, it’s about what’s fair.”

Mail-in ballots were sent to Los Angeles County residents earlier this month and voting centers opened on Saturday, October 26.

The elections will begin on Tuesday, November 5. Polls close at 8 pm on election day. For more information about the election, visit lavote.gov or the Torrance City Clerk’s Office website.