The City of San Diego Council President Myrtle Cole Fourth District October 23, 2017 Judge Jeffrey B. Barton Presiding*

Published: October 23, 2017 7 pages

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⚠️ 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.

Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F3

Findings 3 findings

F01

The San Diego Unified School District election process does not always result in board members who reflect the diversity of the district's population. Response: The City Council agrees with the Grand Jury's finding.

F02

Because of the high cost of competing in two election campaigns, support and financial backing is often required from special-interest groups. Response: The City Council partially disagrees with the Grand Jury's finding. Although costs spent on election campaigns can be high, financial backing from special-interest groups or others is not required. Groups that wish to support candidates can do so in compliance with elections laws. Finding 03: Term limits enable more citizens to take part in school governance. Response: The City Council agrees with the Grand Jury's finding.

F04

By instituting sub-district elections and term limits, a large part of the elections process will be returned to the people. Response: The City Council agrees with the Grand Jury's finding. Finding 05: Term limits broaden the pool of people involved in the schools boards. Response: The City Council agrees with the Grand Jury's finding. Finding 06: School board positions were not intended to be a long-term career position. Response: The City Council partially disagrees with the Grand Jury's finding. School board positions are intended to be a means for providing leadership through a democratic process, including citizen input and varied viewpoints, and are not commonly viewed as long-term career positions. However, Charter section 66 (and its seven amendments since 1931) has never included term limits for San Diego Unified School District board members. City Council Response to San Diego County Grand Jury Report Titled "San Diego Unified School District School Board Elections - Time for a Change"

Recommendations 2

17-29
Page 3

 Consider placing a measure on a future ballot to allow the voters to decide whether to amend the San Diego City Charter to allow a San Diego Unified School District board candidate who receives a majority of the votes in their sub-district during the primary election be considered elected. Response: The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted. In the November 2016 general election, voters approved the opposite approach for the City of San Diego races for Mayor, Councilmembers, and City Attorney. With the approval of Measure K, a runoff for each race will now be required for the two candidates receiving the most votes in the primary. Previously, runoff elections were not required if a candidate in a given race received a majority vote in the primary.
17-30
Page 3

 Consider placing a measure on a future ballot to allow the voters to decide whether to amend the San Diego City Charter to limit the number of terms San Diego Unified School District School Board Trustees can serve. Response: The recommendation has been implemented. See response to Recommendation 17–28. (R-2018-118 REV.) 201 311359 RESOLUTION NUMBER R- OCT 16 2017 DATE OF FINAL PASSAGE A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO APPROVING THE CITY COUNCIL'S RESPONSE TO THE MAY 9, 2017 SAN DIEGO COUNTY GRAND JURY REPORT TITLED "SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS - TIME FOR A CHANGE" WHEREAS, on May 9, 2017, the 2016-2017 San Diego County Grand Jury (Grand Jury) filed a report titled "San Diego Unified School District School Board Elections - Time for a Change" that requested a response from the San Diego City Council (Council); and WHEREAS, the Report discusses issues related to specific elements of the School Board elections, including term limits, runoff elections, and district-wide vs. sub-district contests; and WHEREAS, the Report includes six

* 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.