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REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL
To:Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From:Grant Yates, City Manager
Date:April 26, 2016
Subject:Publishing Summary of Ordinances
Recommendation:
adopt A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE,
CALIFORNIA, DESIGNATING THE CITY CLERK TO PREPARE A SUMMARY FOR EACH
ORDINANCE ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AND TO PUBLISH SUCH SUMMARIES IN
IN A NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION
Background
Government Code Section 36933 (Exhibit B) provides that all Ordinances must be published in
a newspaper of general circulation within 15 days of adoption. It also allows the Council to
appoint an official to instead prepare a summary of the Ordinance and for that summary to be
published 5 days prior to the meeting at which said Ordinance is to be adopted, and again within
15 days after the adoption including the vote of the Council. In addition, a certified copy of the
full text of the Ordinance shall be kept available in the office of the City Clerk.
Discussion
Since July 1, 2015, the City has spent over $26,000.00 in Legal Advertising costs. From that
amount 17 Ordinances have been published for an amount over $16,000.00, totaling over
90 pages of text. If the City publishes summaries, this could be reduced to 15 – 20 pages of
text.
Publishing costs have risen over the last several years and will continue to do so as
newspapers have to compete for readers while continuing to cover the cost of production. In
today’s society more and more people are turning to other sources for their information;
websites, social media; email blasts, etc.
Currently the City is printing the entire Ordinance in the newspaper, posting the entire
Ordinance on the City’s website and is available on the City’s website in perpetuity through
Granicus. After a 30 day waiting period, the Ordinance is codified into the Municipal Code
(Code), if it is amending the Code. All Ordinances are scanned into LaserFiche (the City’s
document imaging system) which in the near future will have a public access portal, so that
citizens may search City documents such as Ordinances and Resolutions from their own
computers at home.
In an effort to increase cost savings, increase efficiencies and to bring practices and procedures
in alignment with industry standards, staff is recommending that the Council designate the City
Clerk to prepare a summary for each Ordinance adopted by the City Council and to publish
such summaries in accordance with the law, in a newspaper of general circulation.
Staff will continue to improve access to documents through the website, noticing on Social
Media, on Granicus and have full text versions located within the City Clerk’s department.
Fiscal Impact
The cost savings is estimated to be an amount over $10,000.00 annually, but is not known at
this time.
Prepared By:Susan M. Domen, City Clerk
Approved By:Grant Yates, City Manager
Exhibits
A – Resolution
B – Government Code Section 36933