The City of SAN Diego Council President Myrtle Cole Fourth District November 8, 2018 Judge Peter C. Deddeh Presiding

The democratic process will work well when the voters receive reliable, verifiable, and objective information. Response: The Mayor, City Council, and City Attorney agree with the Grand Jury’s finding. See Response to Recommendation 18-20, as the Report does not consider the applicable information that the City of San Diego already provides to all voters.

The California Election Code §9212 and the Ballot Initiative Transparency Act of 2014 provide an example for municipalities in evaluating the potential impacts of ballot initiatives. Response: The Mayor, City Council, and City Attorney partially disagree with the Grand Jury’s finding. The City notes that California Elections Code § 9212 and the Ballot Initiative Transparency Act of 2014 do not apply to Charter cities such as San Diego that have not adopted the California Elections Code for their elections law. Thus, the City is not in a position to assess them as examples. Additionally, in order to incorporate certain requirements of these laws (including an early public comment period and additional analyses beyond those San Diego already provides), the City would need to amend its elections laws and processes, and the San Diego County Registrar of Voters may be required to provide additional and earlier reports than currently required regarding signature verification. Under the City’s elections laws, election timelines would not always be conducive to implementing portions of these laws. For example, measures may be qualified without sufficient time for the City to conduct certain analysis detailed in § 9212. Moreover, such analysis actually may be superfluous to what is already provided to all voters in the ballot pamphlet, as well as other analyses that may be prepared by the City Attorney’s Office, Independent Budget Analyst, or other City departments during the Council’s process of considering whether to adopt an initiative measure outright or place the initiative measure on a ballot. City Response to San Diego County Grand Jury Report Titled “Improving the San Diego Citizens’ Initiative Process”

The new California Election Code provides a model of how an extended period of review and analysis can provide unbiased and educational information to the voting public. Response: The Mayor, City Council, and City Attorney partially disagree with this finding. The City notes that the initiative provisions of the California Elections Code do not apply to Charter cities such as San Diego that have not adopted the California Elections Code as their governing elections law. Additionally, as alluded to in the response to Finding 02, the timing of preparing a § 9212 analysis may not synchronize with the City’s elections laws and processes. Whether the new “model” of the Ballot Initiative Transparency Act or § 9212 would result in an “extended period” of review at a local level could depend on when a given initiative is submitted and qualified, and the timing of this in connection with the date of the next election.

The City of San Diego may use public funds to educate the voters in an unbiased and informative way on issues raised by initiatives. Response: The Mayor, City Council, and City Attorney partially disagree with the Grand Jury’s finding. The City agrees that unbiased education of voters is critical and that California Government Code section 54964 allows public funds to be used for specific educational purposes. The section prohibits the use of public funds unless the exception below applies: (c) This section does not prohibit the expenditure of local agency funds to provide information to the public about the possible effects of a ballot measure on the activities, operations, or policies of the local agency, if both of the following conditions are met: (1) The informational activities are not otherwise prohibited by the Constitution or laws of this state. (2) The information provided constitutes an accurate, fair, and impartial presentation of relevant facts to aid the voters in reaching an informed judgment regarding the ballot measure. The Report does not consider the full extent of how the City of San Diego already educates voters in an “unbiased and informative way” about initiatives. This is accomplished through public hearings and the recitals in an underlying ordinance placing a measure on the ballot, the Ballot Title and Summary, the Fiscal Impact Analysis, and the Impartial Analysis of all ballot measures. These materials (other than the ordinance recitals) are provided in the voter pamphlet sent to all voters. All of the materials are freely available on the City Clerk’s website, under a tab devoted to election materials. Additionally, the City Attorney’s Office, Independent Budget Analyst, or other City City Response to San Diego County Grand Jury Report Titled “Improving the San Diego Citizens’ Initiative Process” departments may provide additional public reports about issues related to initiatives as they come before the City Council for discussion.