Cupertino Picks 7 Charter Review Committee Members

SANTA CLARA, CA — During the July 10 special meeting, the Santa Clara City Council appointed seven residents to the 2019 Charter Review Committee. The committee is made up of six council district representatives and one at-large member.

The committee members are:

District 1 - Benjamin Cooley

District 2 - Steven Silva

District 3 - Christine Koltermann

District 4 - Katherine Almazol

District 5 - Sudhanshu Jain

District 6 - Stephen Ricossa

At-Large - Richard Bonito

One of the committee’s first steps is to receive public input on whether the City Charter amendment language should be changed to adopt a six council district plan and sequencing currently in place for electing council members by district or to examine if there is community support for some other configuration for electing council members by district.

The committee is expected to recommend amended charter language to the council by November. At that time, the council will consider the committee’s recommendation in order to place a measure on the March 2020 ballot to allow district elections through the charter.

The committee’s first meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. July 18 in council chambers at Santa Clara City Hall, 1500 Warburton Ave. Santa Clarans are invited to attend this and future meetings to be scheduled at a later date. Next week’s meeting will be live streamed on the city's website, Facebook page, YouTube channel and Santa Clara City Television on Comcast channel 15.

In May, the council approved the creation of a Charter Review Committee to implement voter-approved Measure N. The committee’s focus is limited to conducting the public process to draft language for amending the City Charter with respect to council district elections.

In the November 2018 election, Santa Clara voters approved Measure N which was an advisory measure to determine if voters wanted to engage in a public process to draft City Charter amendment language to elect its council members by district other than the mayor. The measure passed with more than 70 percent of the vote.

Due to a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge’s ruling in the California Voting Rights Act lawsuit against the city, Santa Clara held its first district elections in the November 2018 election for Districts 2 and 3. The city is appealing the ruling.

For more information about the Charter Review Committee and implementation of Measure N, visit the city's website.