Many of the measures set before Oroville voters this November are aimed at cleaning up the city’s aging charter.
The document, not updated in over 20 years, has a broad swath of old and inaccurate language. Some sections detail jobs, municipal buildings and meetings that no longer exist.
After multiple Grand Jury reports recommended the city update the charter, city staff got to work. The long and laborious process resulted in the set of four measures before voters this fall.
Measure J asks voters to evaluate the need for a city treasurer position
Measure J asks residents to change the city treasurer position from an elected office to an appointed position.
Brian Ring, Oroville’s city administrator, said the position has been empty for nearly a year now. He said a majority of the treasurer's duties are currently being done by the finance director while the treasurer position remains vacant.
Eliminating the role and transitioning the treasurer's duties to staff would save the city approximately $65,000 dollars a year.
David Pittman, the mayor of Oroville, said the position is obsolete now.
“The technology we have today, the city treasurer's position is really not needed,” he said. “The treasurer's duties were basically to move city finances around to get the best interest rate. We can have that done very easily nowadays.”
Measure K updates how city counselors and the mayor are paid
Measure K would change how city council members and the mayor are compensated. Currently these wages are set by the charter, but approval of Measure K would allow them to be set by ordinance instead.
Ring said most municipalities set compensation for counselors and the mayor through ordinances.
“An ordinance is just a clean way where you make recommendations, you have a public notice about it to all those that might be interested to put comments or provide input, then you have to have a first and second reading,” he said. “Ultimately, it would clean up the way that council members are compensated right now.”
Measure L updates the charter to reflect current job duties and processes
Measure L would repeal Articles XXVII and XXVIIII of the city charter.
Those articles discuss appropriating city funds towards “inducing immigration” to the city. Ring said not only is this language outdated, but funding for tourism is now decided on during routine budget discussions. He said the charter’s required procedures are unnecessary.
Ring said these articles also address how contracting is done for street and roadway construction projects. California now has state laws in place governing how municipalities select contractors for construction projects which makes the charter’s language convoluted and redundant.
Measure L would also establish the Oroville Park Commission as an advisory body to the city council. Ring said the commission has already been functioning as an advisory body for years. He said the charter's language no longer reflects the actual role and duties of the commission and needs to be updated.
Measure M updates other outdated charter language
Measure M is essentially everything else city staff has recommended be changed within the city charter that would not impact residents, Ring said.
The measure includes numerous small language changes to the charter including removing outdated times when city meetings should occur, language now covered by state laws and positions that no longer exist within the city, such as a mentioned baseball commissioner.
Ring said, the only way to change the city’s charter is by putting the issue before voters. He said officials tried to put as few measures on the ballot as possible.
“When you're making changes to a document like this, you can't have every single change on the ballot,” he said. “The ballots are already large enough. So working with the election office, we felt like this was the cleanest way to go about it.”
Voters have until Nov. 5 to submit their ballots.
