This report recommends Council adoption of the attached resolution calling the Special Municipal Election for November 3, 1998 and consolidating it with any election held by another political jurisdiction on that date. The resolution would place two measures on the ballot regarding binding arbitration

On January 13, 1998, the Public Safety Officers’ Association filed a Notice of Intent to Circulate a Petition, along with the written text of the initiative with the City Clerk. The City Attorney provided the title summary as follows:

"An Initiative Measure to Add Provisions to the Sunnyvale City Charter to Require Binding Arbitration in Labor Relations Matters for Employees Engaged in Fire Suppression, Law Enforcement and Dispatching."

The petition was circulated and approximately 13,624 signatures were submitted to the City Clerk on May 26, 1998 to be verified by the County Registrar of Voters. The California Election Code Section 9214 requires that the petition be signed by not less that 15% of the 55,362 registered voters (8,304) according to the last report of registration by the County, on December 30, 1997. On June 23, 1998, the County Registrar verified 12,396 valid signatures to qualify the petition for the November 3, 1998 ballot.

Section 1401 City Charter. Special Municipal Elections. All other Municipal Elections that may be held by authority of this Charter, or by any law, shall be known as Special Municipal Elections.

Legislative/Management Subelement. Policy 7.3B.4: Conduct elections in accordance with the Charter and State laws.

Members of the City Council have submitted a measure regarding binding arbitration to be consolidated with the Special Municipal election. The proposed measure is as follows:

MEASURE ________

Shall the Sunnyvale City Charter be amended to require voter approval of any labor agreement resulting from binding arbitration or fact finding before the agreement may become effective, if the provisions negatively affect management rights or require additional revenues or appropriations?

The following measure has been submitted by the Public Safety Officers Association as initiative measure. The proposed measure is as follows:

MEASURE ________

Shall the Sunnyvale City Charter be amended to provide that disputes about wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment that cannot be resolved by negotiations between the City and the Public Safety Officers Association and the Communications Officers Association be subject to binding arbitration which is final without City Council or voter approval?

The Council, by adopting the resolution, will approve the submittal of arguments for and against the measures to be placed on the ballot. The persons filing an initiative petition may file a written argument in favor. The City Council as the legislative body, or any authorized member of the Council, or any individual voter who is eligible to vote on the measure, or any bona fide association of citizens, or any combination of voters and association, may file a written argument for or against any City measure. No argument shall exceed 300 words in length. The argument shall be accompanied by the name or names of the person or persons submitting it, or, if submitted on behalf of an organization, the name of the organization and the name of at least one of its principal officers. One argument for and one argument against are allowed. The City does not allow for rebuttal arguments. The deadline for submitting arguments is August 10, 1998.

If more than one argument for or more than one argument against the measure is submitted to the City Clerk, the Clerk shall select one of the arguments in favor and one of the arguments against the measure. In selecting the argument the City Clerk shall give preference and priority to the arguments as follows:

No more than five signatures shall appear with any argument submitted. In the event any argument is signed by more than five persons, the signatures of the first five shall be printed. The ten-day review period for public inspection of arguments in the City Clerk’s Office is August 11-21, 1998.

The attached resolution provides for the following:

The cost of conducting the Special Municipal Election is not included in the 1998-99 budget, and therefore a budget modification will be necessary for approval in the amount of $40,000. These costs cover County Registrar of Voters services (including verification of Initiative Petition) and staff resources needed in Program 73602 to conduct election in accordance with State Election Code.