Orange voters will answer another pivotal question this November: Should the city adopt its own charter?
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Orange councilmembers, by a slim 4-3 vote, recently decided the question was at least worth asking residents on the November ballot. Councilmembers Ana Gutierrez, Arianna Barrios and John Gyllenhammer were opposed.
Switching from a general law city bound by state mandates to a charter city, essentially a city with its own constitution, could give Orange more flexibility on “municipal affairs,” councilmembers have said, such as contracting, term limits, local elections and wages on public works projects.
“A charter is a tool. That’s strictly all it is — a tool on how we govern ourselves,” said Councilmember Kathy Tavoularis, who has been heading the push for a charter.
“It means we don’t have to just rely on what the state tells us, that we can rely on ourselves and our voters to tell us how they want to be governed,” she said, adding, “What I’d like to offer the voters is, No. 1, a chance.”
Fountain Valley, Fullerton and Laguna Beach, in recent months, have also eyed charter status, with some elected officials saying it could be advantageous if their cities chose to challenge state laws in court. But the other cities have either pumped the brakes on or have not progressed in their efforts, with opponents raising concerns, including that charter cities are sometimes more vulnerable to additional legal costs for taxpayers.
But Orange councilmembers — Tavoularis as the most vocal — have proffered a charter as a revenue-raising tool. Several councilmembers have supported the idea of later folding taxes into the charter, which they said could help the city alleviate its multi-million dollar budget that is driven by debt and rising costs.
Councilmembers, in recent years, have already slashed spending, including by implementing hiring freezes, deferring infrastructure repairs and scaling back on city programs and events.
As part of the city’s latest efforts to patch that mounting deficit, Orange residents are already set to vote this November on a one cent local sales tax that is projected to eventually generate about $35 million a year for the city’s coffers.
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“I think there’s a lot of good in this charter proposal that will help the city in the long term. And so for that reason, I am also going to support it,” Mayor Dan Slater said.
But some councilmembers took issue with the charter proposal, either for its timing or saying it needed fine-tuning.
“Not voting for this right now has to do with the timing against all the other things we’ve brought forward,” Councilmember Barrios said. “That’s really what it comes down to for me at the end of the day.”
Councilmember Gyllenhammer, who also voted against the idea, said, “I just don’t think we have a product to bring forward.”
“I think this is a one-way door decision, and what makes that for me is that it requires a substantial investment in time and cost to change what we submit,” he said.
“We have to, in my opinion, present something that has a more developed and detailed, specific impact on how we are claiming local control and how we’re different than general law,” Gyllenhammer said.
There are currently 121 charter cities in the state, and 10 in Orange County, including Anaheim, Cypress, Irvine, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.
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