Torrance Municipal Code Art. 12 Appointive Boards

1200 IN GENERAL.

(a) The City Council may create, by ordinance, advisory boards, committees, or commissions as, in its judgment, are required, and may grant to them such powers and duties as are consistent with the provisions of this Charter.

(b) The City Council may combine two or more boards, committees, or commissions as, in its judgment, the duties of the boards overlap, or it conserves financial and staff resources.

(d) The City Council may eliminate a board, committee, or commission as, in its judgment, the board, committee, or commission is no longer required.

(e) The City Council may ask a board, committee, or commission to advise the City Council or may provide for the duties of a board, committee, or commission by ordinance, but the board, committee, or commission shall have no authority to direct the conduct of any department.

(f) All meetings of a board, committee, or commission shall be conducted pursuant to the Ralph M. Brown Act, or any successor law.

(g) All members of City boards, committees, and commissions must be residents of the City and at least 18 years of age. The age requirement shall not apply to members of boards, committees, or commissions on which youth members are permitted to serve by City ordinance or otherwise approved by the City Council. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the City Council may appoint non-residents to boards, committees, or commissions when the City Council has specifically provided for non-residents to be qualified for boards, committees, or commissions by ordinance.

(h) No person shall serve on more than one board, committee, or commission concurrently unless otherwise approved by the City Council.

(i) No person shall serve on a City board, committee, or commission if they are a contractor for the City, a consultant for the City, a vendor for the City, a lobbyist to the City, or have a financial interest, directly or indirectly, in any contract, sale, purchase, or transaction where the City is a party.

1201 EXISTING BOARDS, COMMITTEES, AND COMMISSIONS.

The members of the boards, committees, and commissions holding office when this Charter takes effect shall continue to hold office until their respective terms of office shall expire and until their successors are appointed and qualify.

1202 REMOVAL; VACANCIES.

(a) Any member of a board, committee, or commission shall serve at the pleasure of the City Council and may be removed at any time, without cause, by a vote of the majority of the City Council.

(b) Causes for removal include, but are not limited to:

(1) Excessive absenteeism, to be defined as absence from 2 consecutive meetings of such board, committee, or commission or for 25 percent of the duly scheduled meetings of the board, committee, or commission within any fiscal year unless permission of the board, committee, or commission expressed in the official minutes. A member will be deemed absent from a meeting unless the member is present during at least 2/3 of the time of the entire meeting.

(2) Upon conviction of any felony.

(3) Upon ceasing to be a qualified elector of the City.

(4) Upon written resignation by the member.

(5) Failure to take the required ethics training described in Section 906.

(6) Any of the circumstances described in Section 403.

(c) For the foregoing reasons, or any other, or without cause, the City Council may declare the office of any board, committee, or commission member vacant, and the vacancy shall be effective from the date of the declaration unless otherwise specified in the declaration.

(d) Any vacancies in any board, committee, or commission shall be filled by the City Council in the same manner as the original appointment for the removed member. Upon a vacancy occurring leaving an unexpired portion of a member’s term, any appointment to fill such vacancy shall be for the unexpired portion of the removed member’s term.

CITY CLERK’S CERTIFICATE OF FILING

WHEREAS, the City of Torrance has been for many years and now is a city containing more than three thousand five hundred inhabitants, as ascertained by the last preceding census taken under the authority of the Congress of the United States, and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the provisions of Section 8 of Article XI of the Constitution of the State of California, the City Council of the City of Torrance, being the legislative body thereof, on its own motion did frame the foregoing as a proposed Charter for the City of Torrance and by Resolution No. 1786 passed and adopted on the 1st day of July, 1946, did order the same filed in the office of the City Clerk of Torrance;

NOW, THEREFORE, the undersigned, A. H. Barlett, City Clerk of the City of Torrance, does hereby certify and declare that the said 'Proposed Charter of the City of Torrance' consisting of Pages 1 to 25, was duly and regularly filed in his office as City Clerk in the City Hall at Torrance on the 1st day of July, 1946, at the hour of 8:00 p.m.

Dated: July 2, 1946

/s/ A. H. Bartlett

A.H. Bartlett,

City Clerk of the City of Torrance