Score: 0
(1/1/1)
Santa Clara County Grand Jury
• 2023-2024
• Agency Response
Response to:
Town of Los Gatos
Town of Los Gatos Office of the Town Council*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 1 findings
F1
Page 2
The Civil Grand Jury finds that in the current environment, which is unregulated at the local level, it is easy for the author of a ballot measure question to write the question in a way that is confusing or misleading to voters. Response: The Town partially agrees with this Finding. The Town agrees with the portion of the Finding stating that ballot measure questions can be confusing or misleading. The Grand Jury Report itself provides two examples of this Finding. However, with regard to local ballot measures, the Town disagrees with the finding that ballot measures are unregulated. The California Elections Code clearly sets the expectation that ballot materials should be true and impartial in a manner that does not create prejudice or serve as an argument for or against the proposed measure. In city government, ballot questions are prepared by the city attorney and the city attorney is responsible for drafting ballot questions that are clear to voters. Ballot measures and ballot questions are reviewed at Town Council meetings before submission to the County Registrar of Voters, which provides the community with a direct opportunity to comment on the proposed wording.
Related Recommendations (4)
R1b
Page 2
Governing entities within Santa Clara County should voluntarily submit their ballot questions to the County Counsel for review prior to submission to the Registrar of Voters, unless and until
R1c
Page 2
Governing entities within Santa Clara County should, by March 31, 2023, adopt their own resolution or ordinance to require submission of their ballot questions to the County Counsel for review prior to submission to the Registrar of Voters, unless and until Recommendations 1d and 1e are implemented. Response: The Town will implement Recommendation 1c if the County Counsel confirms that the office 1) has the capacity to review local ballot measure questions; and 2) will be able to complete its review within five days of the Town's submission of its ballot measure question. . Town of Los Gatos Response to Grand Jury Report on Ballot Questions
R1d
Page 2
is implemented. Response: As noted in the Grand Jury report, the California Elections Code does provide an option for recourse if a ballot question falls short of the requirements set forth in State law. If the existing recourses in State law are not working, one solution is to propose amendments to State law. In addition, the Elections Code contains tight timelines and it is challenging to build in review time by a separate agency. The Town will occasionally need to add measures on the ballot quickly in order to respond to time-sensitive issues. Also, the Town will occasionally receive proposed ballot measures as a result of an initiative or referendum. If sufficient signatures are gathered on an initiative or referendum petition, State law requires the Town to place the measure on the ballot at the next regular municipal election. In addition, it is not clear that County Counsel has the capacity to review local ballot measure questions. However, the Town will implement Recommendation 1b if the County Counsel confirms that it 1) has the capacity to provide this review and 2) the review can be completed within five days of the Town's submission.
R1e
Page 3
Governing entities within Santa Clara County should submit their ballot questions for review by the Good Governance in Ballots Commission pursuant to Recommendation 1d. Response: The recommendation will not be implemented, because the County of Santa Clara is more familiar with local issues and therefore better equipped to review local ballot measure questions. .
Agency Responses 2
Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.