Culver City Municipal Code Art. VI City Council

The City Council shall consist of five members elected at-large, at the times and in the manner provided in this Charter. A full term of office shall be four years, commencing at the meeting at which the election results are certified, and continuing until a successor is elected and certified. Any ties in voting shall be settled by the casting of lots.

No person shall serve more than two consecutive full terms as a Council Member. If a person serves a partial term in excess of two years, it shall be considered a full term for the purpose of this provision. Nothing in this provision shall act to bar service as a Council Member after at least two years have elapsed from the Council Member's last full term.

Only residents of the City who are lawfully registered voters of the City shall be eligible to hold an elective City office. Candidates for election to any such office must have been lawfully registered voters of the City for the 30 days immediately preceding the filing of their nomination papers.

Residents who have resigned from an elective City office shall not be eligible to hold an elective City office nor be eligible for candidacy for election until two years have elapsed from the date of resignation.

(Res. No. 2016-R117)

Council Members shall receive compensation for their services in accordance with the provisions of State law.

The City shall maintain records of the total annual compensation, including benefits, received by individual Council Members in their capacities as elected public officials of the City, including all compensation received for services on the Culver City Redevelopment Agency and any other boards or agencies. Individual Council Members shall provide information that the City requires in order to comply with this section. Such information shall be made available to the public in accordance with State law.

The City Council, by a vote of at least three of its members, may appoint a replacement to fill any vacancy on the City Council. Such appointee shall hold office until a successor is elected and certified. If the vacancy occurs before the first day to file nomination papers for the next general municipal election, a Council Member shall be elected at that election as the successor to any appointee, or to fill the vacancy if it has not previously been filled by appointment, and such newly elected Council Member shall serve the remainder of the unexpired terms and until a successor is elected and certified.

If a vacancy is not filled by appointment within 30 days after its occurrence, the City Council shall immediately call a special election to fill the vacancy. The special election shall be held not later than 120 days after the vacancy occurs, except that no special election shall be called to fill the vacancy if it cannot be held at least 180 days before the next general municipal election. A person elected at a special election shall hold office for the remainder of any unexpired term and until a successor is elected and certified.

If there is an election to fill one or more full terms and one or more unexpired terms, then the candidates who receive the highest number of votes shall serve the full terms, and of the candidates remaining, those who receive the next highest number of votes shall serve the unexpired terms.

At any time when there are three or four vacancies on the City Council, the remaining Council Member or Members shall constitute a quorum for the purpose of holding a meeting to consider taking action pursuant to this section, and such action may be taken by the unanimous vote of the remaining Member or Members.

The grounds for forfeiture of the office of a Council Member are the following:

(a) The Council Member is absent, without the consent of the City Council, from all regular City Council meetings for a period of 60 consecutive days from and after the last regular City Council meeting attended by such Council Member;

(b) The Council Member is convicted of a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude; or

(c) The Council Member ceases to be a resident and lawfully registered voter of the City.

After the occurrence of any of the foregoing events, the office of the Council Member shall be declared vacant by the City Council by a vote of at least three of its members. At the request of the affected Council Member, the City Council shall hold a public hearing before declaring the office vacant.

Immediately following the certification of election results for any general or special municipal election at which Council Members are elected, the City Council shall elect one of its members as its presiding officer, who shall have the title of Mayor and one of its members as Vice Mayor. In odd numbered years, the City Council shall elect the Mayor and Vice Mayor at the second City Council meeting following twelve months after the prior election. Both the Mayor and Vice Mayor shall serve at the pleasure of the City Council.

The Mayor shall have a voice and a vote in all City Council proceedings, shall be the official head of the City for all ceremonial purposes, and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by this Charter or as may be imposed by the City Council consistent with the office of Mayor. The Vice Mayor shall perform the duties of the Mayor during the absence or incapacity of the Mayor.

A Council Member who has held the office of Mayor or Vice Mayor for one year shall not be eligible for reelection to that same office until one year has elapsed.

(Res. No. 2018-R060)

All powers of the City shall be vested in the City Council, subject to the provisions of this Charter and the Constitution. The City Council shall have the power to:

(a) Appoint, suspend, remove and fix the compensation of the City Manager, Fire Chief, Police Chief and City Attorney, by a vote of at least three of its members;

(b) Create, modify or abolish any City department, and to prescribe the powers and duties of such departments and their Department Heads;

(c) Review and certify the results of all City elections;

(d) Control all legal business and proceedings, including, but not limited to, the authority to employ other attorneys to take charge of any litigation or other legal matters or to assist the City Attorney in connection with any legal matter, which authority, in whole or in part, may be delegated to the City Attorney; and

(e) Compel the attendance of witnesses, examine them under oath, and compel the production of evidence before it. The City Council may cause subpoenas to be issued in the name of the City and be attested to by the City Clerk. Disobedience of such subpoenas, or the refusal to testify, upon other than constitutional grounds, shall constitute a misdemeanor. Council Members, and any City staff members designated by the City Council, shall have the power to administer oaths in any investigation or proceeding before it.

Additionally, the City Council shall have all other powers consistent with this Charter and the Constitution.

The City Council shall hold regular meetings at such times as it shall fix by ordinance or resolution and may adjourn any regular meeting to a date certain, which shall be specified in the order of adjournment and when so adjourned, each adjourned meeting shall be a regular meeting for all purposes.

The Council Chambers of City Hall shall be the primary place of all City Council meetings.

By a vote of at least three of its members, the City Council may order a regular meeting to be held not less than seven days after that date at a place within the City other than the Council Chambers.

The City Council may, upon making a finding that the public interest requires it, order a meeting adjourned to another location within the City and to a time during the same day on which the order is made.

If for any reason it shall be unsafe to meet in the Council Chambers, meetings may be held for the duration of the unsafe condition at a place within the City designated by the Mayor, or by the City Council.

Whenever an order is made to hold a meeting at a place other than the Council Chambers, the City Clerk shall immediately post a copy of the order at a conspicuous location near the outside of the main entrance to the Council Chambers. The order shall remain posted until the meeting is held.

(Res. No. 2016-R117)

A special meeting of the City Council may be called at any time by the Mayor, or by a majority of the Council Members.

The City Council shall comply with the applicable provisions of State law regarding the giving of notice for regular and special meetings. The City Council shall consider whether it should establish additional procedures to provide efficient, timely and cost-effective notice in a manner consistent with currently available technology.

During any public meeting, all persons shall have the right to address the City Council, and any City commission, board or committee, subject to reasonable rules of decorum and time limits established by ordinance or the presiding officer.

Three members of the City Council shall constitute a quorum to do business, but in the absence of a quorum, a lesser number may declare a meeting adjourned.

Except as otherwise provided in this Charter, actions of the City Council shall be decided by a majority of the members present and voting on a matter, excluding abstentions.

The City Clerk shall keep a correct record of all proceedings of the City Council, and shall record the vote taken on all actions and enter the result in the minutes of the meeting.

No ordinance shall be adopted by the City Council on the day of its introduction, nor within five days thereafter, nor at any time other than at a regular or adjourned regular meeting. The foregoing shall not apply to urgency ordinances adopted in the manner provided in this Charter. A resolution adopted by the City Council shall become effective in accordance with its terms.

At the time of adoption of an ordinance, it shall be read in full, unless, after the reading of the title, the further reading thereof is waived by unanimous consent of the Council Members present. In the event that any ordinance is altered after its introduction, it shall be reintroduced and not finally adopted except at a regular or adjourned regular meeting, held not less than five days after the date upon which such ordinance was so reintroduced. The correction of typographical or clerical errors shall not constitute the making of an alteration within the meaning of the foregoing sentence.

The votes of at least three members of the City Council shall be required for the introduction or enactment of any ordinance or resolution, or for the making or approving of any order for the payment of money.

No order for the payment of money shall be adopted or made at any time other than at a regular or adjourned regular meeting.

Any ordinance declared by the City Council to be necessary as an urgency measure for preserving the public peace, health or safety and containing a statement of the reasons for its urgency may be introduced and adopted at any regular, adjourned, or special meeting if passed by a vote of at least four-fifths of its members.

In addition to all other acts of the City Council that are required by State law or by this Charter to be enacted by ordinance, every act of the City Council establishing a fine or other penalty or granting a franchise shall be enacted by ordinance.

The enacting clause of all ordinances shall be substantially as follows: “The City Council of the City of Culver City does ordain as follows:”.

The City Clerk shall record the full text of all ordinances and resolutions adopted by the City Council in a properly indexed book. The City Clerk shall also cause each ordinance, or a summary of such ordinance, to be published not later than 15 days after its adoption in a newspaper circulated in the City and designated by the City Council.

Any provision of an existing ordinance may be amended without reenactment and republication of the entire original ordinance.

The City Council shall periodically provide for the preparation of a general codification, compilation, consolidation, revision, indexing or arranging of all City ordinances and resolutions then having the force and effect of law.

The codification of City ordinances may be accomplished by reference to the passage of previously adopted ordinances. Such codifications need not be published in the manner required for other ordinances, but prior to adoption, at least three copies of the Code shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk, where they shall be available for public inspection.

Detailed regulations pertaining to any subject, such as fire, building, plumbing, electrical and mechanical codes, as well as codes on other subjects that require extensive regulations, may be adopted by reference, and without the necessity of publication, in the manner provided above. One copy of such codes shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk, prior to their adoption, where they shall be available for public inspection.

Subsequent amendments to sections of the general codification of City ordinances, or the regulatory codes, shall be enacted in the same manner required by this Charter for the amendment of ordinances generally.

In order to allow the People to exercise their referendum power, no ordinance shall become effective until 30 days from and after the date of its adoption, except, the following, which shall take effect upon adoption:

(a) An ordinance calling for or otherwise relating to an election;

(b) An improvement proceeding ordinance adopted under some law, or procedural ordinance;

(c) An ordinance declaring the amount of money necessary to be raised by taxation, or fixing the rate of taxation; or

(d) An urgency ordinance adopted in the manner provided in this Charter.

Unless a specific ordinance provides otherwise, a violation of an ordinance of the City shall be a misdemeanor. The City Council, by ordinance, may establish the penalty by fine or imprisonment, or both, for misdemeanors and only by fine for infractions.

Violations of City ordinances may be prosecuted in the name of the People of the State of California or may be redressed by the City through any legal or equitable remedies.

The City Council shall designate one newspaper circulated in the City for the publication of all notices and other matters required to be published in a newspaper. When possible, a change to another newspaper shall not be made until a notice of the intention to change is published in the previously designated newspaper.

The charges for such publications in the designated newspaper shall not exceed the rates charged to the general public for similar publications.

All legal notices or other matters required to be published shall also be posted in at least three public places within the City.

Posting of legal notices in three public places shall be sufficient, without publication if the designated newspaper is unavailable and a suitable replacement cannot be designated.