O26411
City Council Meeting: June 23, 2020 Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER 2641 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SANTA MONICA AMENDING SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION
11.04.120 TO PLACE A CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATION IN THE
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES’S OFFICAL SAMPLE BALLOT AND TRANSFER COSTS
FOR A CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT TO THE CANDIDATE
WHEREAS, California Elections Code section 13307 allows candidates to prepare
a written statement of qualifications, requires the City Clerk to distribute these candidate
statements to voters, and requires the City Clerk to provide a Spanish translation of the
statements to candidates wishing to have one; and
WHEREAS, under California Elections Code section 13307, local agencies are
authorized to charge candidates for all or part of printing, handling, translation, mailing,
and electronically distributing candidate statements; and
WHEREAS, in prior City elections, the cost of printing, handling, translating, and
mailing candidate statements has been paid by the City; and
WHEREAS, due to the City’s long-time election consultant closing its operations,
the City desires to use the County of Los Angeles’s Official Sample Ballot for distribution
of candidate statements to the voters; and
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WHEREAS, the City now desires to require that candidates themselves bear the
cost of printing, handling, and translating a candidate statement, that will be distributed
via the County’s Official Sample Ballot.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 11.04.120 is hereby amended
as follows:
11.04.120 Candidate’s statement of qualifications.
(a) Each candidate for Santa Monica City Council, Santa Monica Rent Control
Board, or other elected office of the City of Santa Monica, may prepare a statement of
qualification on an appropriate form provided by the City Clerk. Such statement may
include the name, age and occupation of the candidate and a brief description of no more
than two hundred words of the candidate’s education and qualifications expressed by the
candidate. The statement may make no reference to another candidate. The statement
shall not include the party affiliation of the candidate, nor membership or activity in
partisan political organizations. Such statement shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk
when the candidate’s nomination papers are returned for filing. It may be withdrawn but
not changed during the period for filing nomination papers and until five p.m. of the next
working day after the close of the nomination period. No candidate will be permitted to
include additional materials in the sample ballot.
(b) The City Clerk shall ensure that each voter receives a sample ballot
containing the written statements of each candidate’s qualifications that is prepared
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pursuant to this Section. The statement of each candidate shall be printed in type of
uniform size and darkness and with uniform spacing.
(c) The City Clerk shall provide a Spanish translation to those candidates who
wish to have one, and shall select a person to provide that translation who is a
professionally-certified translator as required by State law.
(d) The costs of printing, handling and translating of any statement submitted
pursuant to this section shall be paid by the candidate for elections occurring prior to
November 2022; for elections occurring in or after November 2022, the costs described
in this subsection (d) shall be paid by the City.
(e) The City Clerk shall reject any statement which contains any obscene,
libelous or defamatory matter, which violates the constitutional or civil rights of any
person, or which is prohibited by State or Federal law from being circulated through the
mail.
(f) The City Clerk shall comply with all recommendations and standards set
forth by the California Secretary of State regarding occupational designations and other
matters relating to elections.
(g) Nothing in this Section shall be deemed to make any such statement or
the authors thereof free or exempt from any civil or criminal action or penalty because of
any false or libelous statements offered for printing or contained in the sample ballot.
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Section 2. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices
thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of such
inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary to
effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
Section 3. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this
Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any
court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining
portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed
this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not
declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance
would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
Section 4. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage of
this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once in the official
newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become effective 30
days from its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_________________________
GEORGE S. CARDONA
Interim City Attorney
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Approved and adopted this 23rd day of June, 2020.
_____________________________
Kevin McKeown, Mayor
State of California )
County of Los Angeles ) ss.
City of Santa Monica )
I, Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do
hereby certify that the foregoing Ordinance No. 2641 (CCS) had its introduction
on June 9, 2020 and was adopted at the Santa Monica City Council meeting held
on June 23, 2020, by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Davis, Morena, Himmelrich, Winterer, Jara,
Mayor Pro Tem O’Day, Mayor McKeown
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
ATTEST:
_____________________________________ _________________
Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk Date
A summary of Ordinance No. 2641 (CCS) was duly published pursuant
to California Government Code Section 40806.
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6/26/2020