Bylaws Update

The LJCPA Bylaws Update Committee will hold its second public meeting on

Tuesday 17 October
6pm
(location tbd)

to solicit comments on the greatly revised drafts proposed for LJCPA’s Bylaws, Operating Procedures, and Community Participation and Representation Plan.

  • Here’s the Agenda for the meeting: (forthcoming)

Below are links to the Committee’s current drafts. The Editor’s Notes summarize the major changes proposed in the Bylaws and Operating Procedures. There’s a link to LJCPA’s current Bylaws and the City’s 600-24 website at the bottom of this page.

The new/revised Bylaws, Operating Procedures, and Community Participation and Representation Plan, possibly revised based on discussion at the meeting, will go to the Trustees for discussion and possible adoption at the November Trustee meeting. If the documents are not approved at that meeting, they must be approved at the December meeting in order to meet the City’s 12/31/2023 submission deadline.

The current drafts incorporate most of the suggestions received through the Committee’s public portal, with two principal exceptions: some of the comments sought changes beyond the Committee’s or indeed LJCPA’s purview (eg, zoning changes), and one extensive set of comments from Mr. Terry included some substantive proposals that in the Committee’s view would impose excessive burdens on the Secretary, would cost more than LJCPA can afford, or would unduly restrict how meetings are run.

Here are links to

Once approved by the Trustees, the Operating Procedures and Community Participation and Representation Plan will be submitted to the City in December along with the application to be recognized as La Jolla’s Community Planning Group under the revised City Council Policy 600-24.

Whether you attend the public meeting or not, if you have comments the Committee would very much appreciate having them in writing via the special email address or survey form. If you have specific suggestions for a given provision, it would be especially helpful if you would provide the specific alternative text you prefer; that is, rewrite the paragraph(s) in question.

All such comments will be available publicly once cleared by a moderator. Here’s how to submit comments:

As required by the City, the Committee will also be collecting and anonymizing some basic demographic attributes of current LJCPA Trustees. We’ll also discuss this at the public meeting, and undertake data collection soon thereafter.

Background

The City Council recently amended the most important set of rules governing LJCPA’s role in the review of projects and land-use policy, known as City Council Policy 600-24. If we are to continue formally advising the City, the amended Policy 600-24 (link listed below) requires us to change some policies and procedures, especially with regard to membership, elections, outreach, representation, and ethical standards. These changes require amending our Bylaws.

The LJCPA Trustees have appointed an ad hoc committee to draft revised Bylaws and associated documents for Trustee review. The committee comprises Greg Jackson (chair), Suzanne Baracchini (ex officio), Brian Earley, Lisa Kreideman, Jodi Rudick, and Bob Steck.

The 2016 Bylaws are structured and numbered inconsistently. As an initial step, the Committee renumbered and somewhat rearranged them, with no changes to the body text or substance. The Committee will work from the renumbered version (linked below).

The principal changes required by the new City policy are

  • Create separate “Operating Policies & Procedures” to implement Bylaws principles and provisions
  • Remove meeting-attendance requirements for Members to vote and become Trustee candidates
  • Remove renewal requirement for Members
  • Modify term limits provisions to allow 9 years of continuous service for Trustees, and require 2 years before termed-out Trustees can run again
  • Require that Trustee recommendations on projects be submitted to the City within 7 days of the Trustee vote
  • Require that Trustees repeat 600-24 training once a year
  • Expand conflict of interest and other ethical requirements for Trustees
  • Create “Community Participation and Representation” plan to promote and document Trustee representativeness in terms of key demographic or community attributes

The current Bylaws are in many respects dated and/or overly restrictive. This thus seems a good time also to consider amendments to eliminate obsolete provisions, to update policies and practices for greater efficiency and effectiveness, or to otherwise modernize LJCPA governance. Among such possible changes are

  • Remove references to specific meeting, voting, and posting locations
  • Remove paper or US Mail requirements for Agendas and other communications
  • Clarify that LJCPA mailing list is the mechanism for sending out Agendas and other notifications
  • Provide greater clarity on conflicts of interest, transparency, and other ethical requirements for Trustees
  • Allow online, mail-in, and other mechanisms for elections
  • Define and/or clarify requirements and procedures associated with Consent Agenda items
  • Clarify requirements for abstention or recusal at Trustee meetings
  • Enable President to appoint Committee members if outside entities fail to do so

Links

To receive and archive your comments–and to make them public–we have set up a special email address and survey form (links also listed below), and plan to hold a public forum in September.

Here are some relevant URLs: