Huntington Beach Charter Reform

Last updated April 15, 2010

The City of Huntington Beach is proceeding with the first major charter revision since 1978.  The city council appointed a 15-member Charter Review Commission that was tasked with proposing a new charter.  The commission has completed its work and forwarded a draft charter to the city council for their review and possible modifications.  The city council will be holding its first study session on the new charter on Monday, April 19, 2010, at 4PM in city hall room B-8 (see agenda here), followed by consideration at a future regular city council meeting to submit the charter to the November 2010 general election ballot.

The goal of this page is to provide unbiased tools to allow the citizens of Huntington Beach to participate in a fully informed manner during the coming process.  I, Mark Bixby, have skimmed through every charter on this page and in the process of doing so discovered many progressive innovations that would greatly benefit the citizens of Huntington Beach.  I strongly urge other people with intense interest in charter reform to similarly skim through every charter -- it is time well-spent.

My Charter Proposals

The table below lists the status of all of the substantive charter proposals that I made while I served on the charter commission.  Click each proposal short description to view the complete proposal details.

Proposal
Result
Improve transparency for closed sessions
Withdrawn
Publish all agenda materials on the Internet
Weakened
Publish all minutes on the Internet
Weakened
Extend the reach of the Brown Act and the Public Records Act
Failed
Broaden the prohibition against nepotism
Failed
Publish all ordinances on the Internet
Weakened
Auto-repeal emergency ordinances after 120 days
Adopted
Publish all legal notices on the Internet
Weakened
Limit franchise duration and prohibit granting by emergency ordinance
Failed
Elected officials must forfeit office for charter violations
Failed
Change city attorney and city treasurer to appointed positions
Failed
City councilmember compensation to conform more closely with general law
Failed
Lower petition signature thresholds for initiative, referendum, and recall
Failed
Campaign contribution limit set by charter
Failed
Ceiling for anonymous campaign contributions
Failed
Tightened conflict of interest restrictions for elected officials
Failed
Electronic filing and Internet publication of campaign finance disclosures
Failed
Safe harbor for prompt refund of improper campaign contributions
Failed
Prevent carryover of surplus campaign funds
Failed
Strengthen Measure C
Failed
Require charter review at least once every 10 years
Adopted
Prohibit eminent domain for private benefit
Failed
Dedicated Transient Occupancy Tax funding for neighborhood infrastructure improvements
Failed
Require park in-lieu fees to be spent on park development until park acreage goals are met
Failed
Protections for city-owned tidelands
Failed
Improved public oversight for long-duration contracts
Withdrawn
Local preference for public works contracts
Withdrawn

All California Charters

The table below contains links to the charters of all California charter cities.  The "Searchable Charter" column links to the bixby.org PDF copy of the charters which may have been reformatted and/or OCR-ed to facilitate keyword searching.  The "Official Charter" column links to the official city-hosted or codifier-hosted version of the charters.

(search all California charters)
Or download all searchable charters (82MB) for searching with Adobe Reader's "Search all PDF documents in..." feature (open Full Reader Search by clicking the down arrow to the right of the "Find" box, or type Shift+Ctrl+F).

Searching via Google and searching via Acrobat Reader both have their plusses and minuses.  Some searches may be better suited for one method instead of the other.  The Google search button above only searches through the "Searchable Charters" below.

See the bottom of this page for additional search tools that may be helpful to somebody participating in charter reform.

Searchable Charter
Official Web Site
Official Charter
Adelanto http://adelantoca.govoffice2.com/ http://www.amlegal.com/adelanto_ca/
Alameda http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/ http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/gov/city_charter.html
Albany http://www.albanyca.org/ http://clerkshq.com/default.ashx?clientsite=albany-ca
Alhambra http://www.cityofalhambra.org/ http://www.amlegal.com/alhambra_ca/
Anaheim http://www.anaheim.net/ http://www.anaheim.net/docs_agend/charter.pdf
Arcadia http://www.ci.arcadia.ca.us/home/index.asp http://www.ci.arcadia.ca.us/docs/170456102008city_charter.pdf
Bakersfield http://www.bakersfieldcity.us/index.htm http://www.qcode.us/codes/bakersfield/
Berkeley http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Home.aspx http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=10776
Big Bear Lake http://www.citybigbearlake.com/ http://www.citybigbearlake.com/cityGovt/documents/CityCharter_000.pdf
Buena Park http://www.buenapark.com/ http://www.buenapark.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=609
Burbank http://www.ci.burbank.ca.us/ http://www.ci.burbank.ca.us/cityclerk/bmc%20-%20reorganized/Charter.pdf
Carlsbad http://www.carlsbadca.gov/ http://www.carlsbadconnected.com/#carlsbads-approved-charter-7a1de
Cerritos http://www.ci.cerritos.ca.us/ http://www.ci.cerritos.ca.us/citygov/City_Charter.pdf
Chico http://www.chico.ca.us/ http://www.chico.ca.us/document_library/municode/Charter.pdf
Chula Vista http://www.chulavistaca.gov/ http://www.chulavistaca.gov/City_Services/Administrative_Services/City_Clerk/PDFs/CVCharter.pdf
Compton http://www.comptoncity.org/ http://www.comptoncity.org/index.php/City-Clerk/city-charter.html
Culver City http://www.ci.culver-city.ca.us/ http://www.amlegal.com/culvercity_ca/
Cypress http://www.ci.cypress.ca.us/ http://www.ci.cypress.ca.us/administration/cypress_charter.pdf
Del Mar http://www.delmar.ca.us/ http://www.delmar.ca.us/Government/Municipal%20Code/CityCharter.pdf
Desert Hot Springs http://www.desert-hot-springs.us/ http://www.qcode.us/codes/deserthotsprings/
Dinuba http://www.dinuba.org/ http://www.dinuba.org/pdf/city%20charter.pdf
Downey http://www.downeyca.org/ http://www.downeyca.org/city_charter.pdf
Eureka http://www.ci.eureka.ca.gov/ http://www.amlegal.com/eureka_ca/
Exeter http://www.cityofexeter.com/ CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA SNAIL-MAIL
Folsom http://www.folsom.ca.us/ http://www.folsom.ca.us/depts/city_clerk/charter.asp
Fortuna http://friendlyfortuna.com/ http://www.codepublishing.com/ca/fortuna/
Fresno http://www.fresno.gov/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=14478&sid=5
Gilroy http://www.cityofgilroy.org/cityofgilroy/ http://www.cityofgilroy.org/cityofgilroy_files/city_hall/COG-AmendedCharter_03-16-2009.pdf
Glendale http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/ http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/gmc/charter.asp
Grass Valley http://www.cityofgrassvalley.com/ http://www.cityofgrassvalley.com/services/resources/municodes/Title_99/01/010.html
Hayward http://www.hayward-ca.gov/ http://www.hayward-ca.gov/about/pdf/CHARTER.pdf
Huntington Beach http://www.surfcity-hb.org/ http://www.surfcity-hb.org/Government/charter_codes/city_charter.cfm
Indian Wells http://www.cityofindianwells.org/ CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL
Industry http://www.cityofindustry.org/index2.asp CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL
Inglewood http://www.cityofinglewood.org/default.asp http://www.cityofinglewood.org/depts/cityclerks/city_charter.asp
Irvine http://www.ci.irvine.ca.us/ http://www.ci.irvine.ca.us/cityhall/cityclerk/city_charter.asp
Irwindale http://irwindale.ca.us/home.html http://irwindale.ca.us/municipal_code/
Kingsburg http://www.cityofkingsburg-ca.gov/ http://www.municode.com/resources/gateway.asp?pid=16082&sid=5
La Quinta http://www.la-quinta.org/ http://qcode.us/codes/laquinta/
Lemoore http://www.lemoore.com/default.html CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL
Lindsay http://www.lindsay.ca.us/ CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA SNAIL-MAIL
Loma Linda http://www.ci.loma-linda.ca.us/ http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/codes/lomalinda/
Long Beach http://www.longbeach.gov/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=16854&sid=5
Los Alamitos http://www.ci.los-alamitos.ca.us/ http://qcode.us/codes/losalamitos/
Los Angeles http://www.ci.la.ca.us/ http://www.amlegal.com/library/ca/losangeles.shtml
Marina http://www.ci.marina.ca.us/ http://www.ci.marina.ca.us/documents/City%20Clerk/MarinaCityCharter.PDF
Marysville http://www.marysville.ca.us/ http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/marysville/
Merced http://www.ci.merced.ca.us/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=16096&sid=5
Modesto http://www.ci.modesto.ca.us/ http://www.ci.modesto.ca.us/ccl/municode/
Monterey http://www.monterey.org/ http://www.codepublishing.com/ca/monterey/
Mountain View http://www.ci.mtnview.ca.us/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=16508&sid=5
Napa http://www.cityofnapa.org/ http://74.205.120.199/images/cityclerk/charter.pdf
Needles http://www.cityofneedles.com/index.asp CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA SNAIL-MAIL
Newport Beach http://www.city.newport-beach.ca.us/ http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/NewportBeach/
Norco http://www.ci.norco.ca.us/ http://www.ci.norco.ca.us/depts/city_clerk/city_charter.asp
Oakland http://www.oaklandnet.com/ http://www.municode.com/resources/gateway.asp?pid=16308&sid=5
Oroville http://www.cityoforoville.org/ http://63.195.12.146/citycode/index.html
Pacific Grove http://www.ci.pg.ca.us/ http://nt2.scbbs.com/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=461048761&hitsperheading=on&infobase=procode-4&record={77007DA1}&softpage=Document42
Palm Desert http://www.cityofpalmdesert.org/ http://www.cityofpalmdesert.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=23
Palm Springs http://www.ci.palm-springs.ca.us/ http://www.qcode.us/codes/palmsprings/
Palo Alto http://www.city.palo-alto.ca.us/ http://www.amlegal.com/library/ca/paloalto.shtml
Pasadena http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=16551&sid=5
Petaluma http://cityofpetaluma.net/ http://www.codepublishing.com/ca/petaluma.html
Piedmont http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/ http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/html/city_charter/charter.pdf
Placentia http://placentia.org/ http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/codes/placentia/
Pomona http://www.ci.pomona.ca.us/ http://www.municode.com/resources/gateway.asp?pid=13712&sid=5
Port Hueneme http://www.ci.port-hueneme.ca.us/ CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL
Porterville http://www.ci.porterville.ca.us/ http://www.sterlingcodifiers.com/CA/Porterville/index.htm
Rancho Mirage http://www.ci.rancho-mirage.ca.us/index.php http://www.amlegal.com/ranchomirage_ca/
Redondo Beach http://www.redondo.org/default.asp http://www.qcode.us/codes/redondobeach/
Redwood City http://www.redwoodcity.org/index.asp http://www.redwoodcity.org/government/charter.html
Richmond http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=16579&sid=5
Riverside http://www.riversideca.gov/ http://www.riversideca.gov/municode/city-charter.asp
Roseville http://www.roseville.ca.us/ http://qcode.us/codes/roseville/
Sacramento http://www.cityofsacramento.org/ http://www.qcode.us/codes/sacramento/
Salinas http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/ http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/codes/salinas/
San Bernardino http://www.sbcity.org/ http://www.sbcity.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=2375
San Diego http://www.sandiego.gov/ http://www.sandiego.gov/city-clerk/officialdocs/legisdocs/charter.shtml
San Francisco http://www.sfgov.org/ http://www.municode.com/resources/gateway.asp?pid=14130&sid=5
San Jose http://www.sanjoseca.gov/ http://www.sanjoseca.gov/clerk/charter.asp
San Leandro http://www.ci.san-leandro.ca.us/ http://qcode.us/codes/sanleandro/
San Luis Obispo http://www.slocity.org/ http://www.slocity.org/cityclerk/download/City%20Charter%202008.pdf
San Marcos http://www.ci.san-marcos.ca.us/ http://www.ci.san-marcos.ca.us/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=243
San Mateo http://www.ci.sanmateo.ca.us/ http://www.ci.sanmateo.ca.us/index.asp?nid=861
San Rafael http://www.cityofsanrafael.org/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=16610&sid=5
San Ramon http://www.ci.san-ramon.ca.us/ http://www.ci.san-ramon.ca.us/clerk/charter.htm
Sand City http://www.sandcity.org/ CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL
Santa Ana http://www.ci.santa-ana.ca.us/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=14452&sid=5
Santa Barbara http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/ http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/Government/Ordinances/Charter/
Santa Clara http://santaclaraca.gov/ http://santaclaraca.gov/about_us/au_article_I.html
Santa Cruz http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/ http://www.codepublishing.com/ca/santacruz/
Santa Maria http://www.ci.santa-maria.ca.us/ http://www.ci.santa-maria.ca.us/CityCharter.pdf
Santa Monica http://www.smgov.net/ http://www.qcode.us/codes/santamonica/
Santa Rosa http://www.ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/ http://www.ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/departments/cityadmin/cityclerk/Pages/CityCharter.aspx
Santee http://www.ci.santee.ca.us/ http://qcode.us/codes/santee/
Seal Beach http://www.ci.seal-beach.ca.us/ http://pubrec.ci.seal-beach.ca.us/weblink7/docview.aspx?id=14581
Shafter http://www.shafter.com/ CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL
Signal Hill http://www.cityofsignalhill.org/ http://www.cityofsignalhill.org/city_clerk/city_charter.php
Solvang http://www.cityofsolvang.com/ http://www.cityofsolvang.com/index.php/city-charter
Stockton http://www.stocktongov.com/ http://qcode.us/codes/stockton/
Sunnyvale http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/ http://qcode.us/codes/sunnyvale/
Temple City http://www.templecity.us/ http://www.sterlingcodifiers.com/CA/Temple%20City/index.htm
Torrance http://www.ci.torrance.ca.us/ http://municipalcodes.lexisnexis.com/codes/torrance/
Truckee http://www.townoftruckee.com/ CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL
Tulare http://www.ci.tulare.ca.us/ http://www.ci.tulare.ca.us/public_documents/municipal_code.htm
Vallejo http://www.ci.vallejo.ca.us/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=16106&sid=5
Ventura http://www.cityofventura.net/ http://www.cityofventura.net/city_manager/city_clerk/charter
Vernon http://www.cityofvernon.org/index1.htm CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA SNAIL-MAIL
Victorville http://ci.victorville.ca.us/ CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL
Visalia http://www.ci.visalia.ca.us/ http://www.amlegal.com/library/ca/visalia.shtml
Vista http://www.cityofvista.com/ http://www.cityofvista.com/WebLink7/DocView.aspx?id=89525&dbid=1
Watsonville http://www.ci.watsonville.ca.us/ http://www.ci.watsonville.ca.us/departments/clerk/CHARTER2006.pdf
Whittier http://www.whittierch.org/ http://www.municode.com/Resources/gateway.asp?pid=16695&sid=5
Woodlake http://www.cityofwoodlake.com/home.asp CHARTER NOT ONLINE - RECEIVED VIA E-MAIL

Additional Search Tools

The following Google Custom Search Engines can be used to search the city's official web site according to various subject matter groupings that help to avoid false hits:

Huntington Beach City Web Site

 (the entire official city web site)

Huntington Beach Charter, Municipal Code, and Zoning Code

Huntington Beach Planning Department Agendas & Minutes

 (Planning Commission, Zoning Administrator, Design Review Board, Environmental Assessment Committee)
Got suggestions for additional search engines?  Let me know.