[Occupymendocino] Latest revision of the charter with Dan gjerde's help.

[agnes at mcn.org]

                       MENDOCINO COUNTY CHARTER

     We, the sovereign people of Mendocino County, in order to secure the
benefits of home rule, increase citizen participation in county
government, improve efficiency, and provide for a responsible and
cooperative county government, do hereby ordain and establish for its
government this Charter.
>>
>> ARTICLE I:  NAME AND RIGHTS OF THE COUNTY
>> Sec. 1.  The County of Mendocino, State of California, is a body
corporate and politic, and as such has all the powers specified by the
Constitution and laws of the State of California, and by this Charter,
and such other powers as are necessarily implied.  (Article 11 of the
California Constitution,  Sec. 4  (h) Charter counties shall have all
the powers that are provide by this Constitution or by statute for
counties. Sec. 7.  A county or city may make and enforce within its
limits all local, police, sanitary, and other ordinances and
regulations not in conflict with general laws; Boundaries of County,
Section 23152 of the Government Code, Sections 23700-23732 of the
Government Code.)
>> Sec. 2.  The powers mentioned in the preceding section can be exercised
only by a Board of Supervisors, or by agents and officers acting under
their authority or by authority of law or of this Charter.
>> Sec. 3.  The corporate name shall be “County of Mendocino,” which must
be thus designated in all actions and proceedings touching its
corporate rights, properties and duties.  Its boundaries and county
seat shall remain the same as they now are until otherwise changed by
law.
>>
>> ARTICLE II:   BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
>> Sec. 1.  The Board of Supervisors, which serves as the legislative and
executive body of County government and many special districts, is
comprised of five full-time members elected by their respective
districts. Pursuant to the California Government Code, the Board enacts
legislation governing Mendocino County and determines overall policies
and personnel for County departments and various special districts,
adopts the annual budget, and fixes salaries.
>> Sec. 2.  The Board also hears appeals from decisions of the Planning
Commission, considers General Plan amendments, and sits as the Board of
Equalization to provide tax payers with a system for appealing the
valuation placed on their property by the Assessor.
>>  Sec. 3. The Chief Executive Officer is appointed by the Board and
serves as the chief executive office responsible for day-to-day
administration of County affairs.
>>  Sec. 4.  County Counsel, appointed by the Board, advises and
represents the County and Board in all legal affairs.
>>  Sec. 5.  The Clerk of the Board, also appointed by the Board, is
responsible for maintaining the official records of the Board,
attending all sessions of the Board, and managing Board business.
>>  Sec. 6.   The Board of Supervisors in conjunction with the Mendocino
County Bank Board of Directors exercises authority over the Mendocino
County Bank, and either body may vote on projects and infrastructure
on which to use the profits from the Bank.  The vote shall be
implemented unless a majority of the other body objects.
>> Sec. 7.  The following business practices shall be utilized in
Mendocino County:
>>      a.  The Board of Supervisors and the Chief Executive Officer
whenever possible shall use county employees, businesses and
non-profit corporations, including unions with local chapters, to
perform work for the county.
>>       b.  The Board of Supervisors shall do business with corporations
as business entities (“artificial persons”) that can be
chartered, regulated or disenfranchised by county, state or
federal law.  The corporations shall not be considered to have
the rights granted to human beings (“natural persons”) by the
writers of the U.S. Constitution.
>> Sec. 8.   The Board of Supervisors  shall protect county health,
agriculture and forests by acting through the Agricultural Commissioner
to permit no genetically modified organisms to be cultivated, grown or
produced in Mendocino County.  This law protects the county’s farms,
wineries and the “clean” reputation of our agricultural products; it
protects the fisheries and forests from contamination by GMO salmon or
redwood trees; it protects private property from GMO pollen
contamination and safeguards home vegetable gardens; it protects county
property values; and it protects county residents from known and
unidentified health risks by providing the option of buying locally
grown foods free of GMO contamination.  Mendocino retailers,have the
right, working in collaboration with food producers and food
manufacturers, to identify Non-GMO (organic) foods so that buyers may
exercise their right to choose the kind of food they want to eat to
maintain maximum health.
>>  Sec.9.  The Board of Supervisors shall implement the following
sanitary regulations:
>>      a.  To protect the health of the residents of Mendocino County,
the Board of Supervisors shall allow no nuclear weapons or nuclear
power plants in Mendocino County.
>>      b.  To protect the residents of the county from environmental
hazards, especially those affecting the supply of clean water, the
Board of Supervisors shall not authorize any fracking in the
county nor any other industries the Board deems harmful to the
environment, to the aquifer, to human health, or to the
tourism-attracting scenic beauty of the county,
>>      c.  To conserve clean water and improve sanitary conditions in the
county,  the Board of Supervisors shall authorize the installation
and use of  composing toilets in government buildings, homes and
businesses in Mendocino County.
>>
>> ARTICLE III:  COUNTY OFFICERS OTHER THAN SUPERVISORS
>> Sec. 1.  The following officers shall be elected every four years as
provided by general law.
>> Tax Collector-Treasurer-Chair of Mendocino Bank Commission (consolidated)
>> Sheriff-Coroner (consolidated)
>> District Attorney
>> Superior Court Judges
>> Assessor-Clerk-Recorder (consolidated)
>> Auditor-Controller (consolidated)
>> Sec. 2.  The duty of the Assessor-Clerk-Recorder shall be to perform
the mandated duties of recording, indexing and maintaining for public
access, all documents authorized by law to be recorded.This Division
records marriage certificates, files birth and death certificates,
indexes these records, and maintains these records for public access.
Records in this office date back to the beginning of the County. It is
imperative that records be well-preserved and easily accessible as
current property transactions depend on the accuracy and availability
of previously recorded documents.  Therefore it is the duty of the
Recorder to inspect deeds carefully .  If there is any question as to
accuracy of the information, especially in foreclosures with
robosigning or fraudulent notarization or with MERS (Mortgage
Electronic Registration System) in the chain of title, the Recorder
will require an Affidavit of Authenticity appended with CA Penal Code
115.  If this Affidavit is not returned within a specified time with
true signatures, the foreclosure shall not be recorded.
>> Sec. 3.  The duty of the Auditor-Controller is to make thorough
inspection and examination at least once each year of the books and
accounts of all County and District officers and of the methods of
keeping the accounts and transacting the business of such officers, and
to prescribe in writing as to one or all of the offices such rules,
regulations, forms and methods as to keeping the accounts thereof,and
as to making the reports and accounts herein provided for, as the
Auditor shall deem proper, and it shall be the duty of each and all of
such officers to comply with such requirements of the Auditor.
>> (cr.--Sec. 24051 California Government Code provides annual audit.)
>> (cr.  Sec. 24900 California Government Code et seq.)
>> Sec. 4.  The duties of the Tax Collector/Treasurer shall be as follows:
>> a.  The duty of the Tax Collector shall be to administer the billing,
collection, and reporting of property tax revenues levied annually,
including secured, unsecured, and supplemental tax assessments,
including tax bills issued due to change of property ownership or new
construction completed.  Properties that remain tax delinquent for five
or more years may be sold at Public Auction.  The Tax Collector also
shall administer the collection of transient occupancy taxes, Business
Improvement District assessments, and business licenses.
>> b.  The duty of the Treasurer shall be to be responsible for the
collection, custody, investment, and disbursements of the funds of the
County, School Districts, Special Districts, and Trust Funds. All
monies collected by the aforementioned entities shall be deposited in
the Mendocino County Bank, which is the County of Mendocino doing
business as the Mendocino County Bank, or as otherwise established in
accordance with constitutional and statutory provisions.   The funds
shall be pooled and used for investment purposes, while segregating the
individual account transactions for interest apportionment purposes.
The guiding principles of the investment policy shall be in this order:
(1) Safety, (2) Liquidity,  (3) Yield, (4) Ethical Investing. 
Investments shall be placed with the objective of obtaining a
respectable rate of return, not attempting to maximize yield at the
expense of safety, liquidity, availability or ethical investing.
>> c.  The Treasurer shall be the chair of a seven member Board of
Directors which shall operate, manage, and control the Mendocino County
Bank.  The other members of the Board shall be the County Counsel, the
Chair of the EDFC (Economic Development and Finance Corporation), one
current or retired officer of a local bank, one current or retired
officer of a local credit union, and two retired officers of state or
federally chartered banks. The Board of Directors shall appoint the
President and officers of the Mendocino County Bank and determine their
salaries; the Board of Supervisors shall confirm those appointments and
salaries.  The Board of Directors shall elect a Vice-Chair and
Secretary, and meet regularly with the management of the Mendocino
County Bank to review and make recommendations about the management
performance, customer service, and overall improvements in methods,
procedures and operating policies of the Bank.  The Board of
Supervisors shall ratify the salaries of all other County Bank
employees.
>> d.  The Treasurer and the Board of Directors shall assure that the
Mendocino County Bank utilizes Mendocino County revenues for the
benefit of Mendocino County residents and businesses.   Thus the Bank
shall return full interest on public tax deposits so that essential
services can be expanded without raising taxes.   The Bank shall
partner with and support community retail banks and credit unions to
grant loans to sustainable, worthy, job-creating, local industries and
small businesses.  The Bank shall fund county projects, significantly
reduce county debt service costs and pay any interest back to the
county not to speculators.  The Bank shall redirect investment away
from the big commercial banks and risky derivatives into real goods and
services thus protecting the value of county savings and pensions.  The
Bank shall make low interest student loans to qualified students and in
times of economic downturn, the Bank shall support the local economy by
increasing the availability of loans.
>> e.  The Treasurer and Board of Directors in conjunction with the Board
of Supervisors shall exercise authority over the Mendocino County Bank
profits.   Either body may vote to allocate money from bank profits
deposited in the Invest Mendocino Fund to fund projects or
infrastructure improvements to benefit the people of the County of
Mendocino with the second body providing ratification of those
allocations.  (e.g.Board of Supervisors allocates; Board of Directors
ratifies or vice versa.)
>> f.   The Board of Supervisors, with consent of the Board of Directors,
shall appoint from citizen applicants a Citizens’ Advisory Committee of
five members to meet as needed and make recommendations to the Board of
Directors and the Board of Supervisors about projects or services that
the Mendocino County Bank should undertake to improve its service to
the people of Mendocino County.
>> g.   The Board of Directors working with the Board of Supervisors may
acquire by purchase at current market value or by Eminent Domain,
properties being fraudulently foreclosed or in danger of being
fraudulently foreclosed.  The Bank shall then refinance those mortgages
at current market value,  at a reasonable rate of interest to enable
the credit-worthy residents to remain in their homes, making their
mortgage payments to the County Bank thereby maintaining property
values in their neighborhood and thus protect property tax revenues for
the County.  After acquiring any properties by Eminent Domain, the
Mendocino County Bank shall notify bank servicers through publication
in a newspaper that they no longer have servicing rights to those named
properties.
>>  h.   The Treasurer and the Board of Supervisors shall assure that the
Mendocino County Bank does not compete with local retail banks and
credit unions and shall assure that the Bank works cooperatively with
all local retail banks and credit unions to underwrite loans, buy down
interest rates, or otherwise facilitate and improve the services the
local banks and credit unions offer to the people of Mendocino County.
>>
>>
>> ARTICLE IV:  ELECTIONS
>>  Sec. a.  In order to conserve county money, elections in Mendocino
County shall use Instant Run-off Voting (IRV), which  allows voters to
rank candidates in order of preference (i.e. first, second, third,
fourth and so on). Voters have the option to rank as many or as few
candidates as they wish, but can vote without fear that ranking less
favored candidates will harm the chances of their most preferred
candidates. First choices are then tabulated, and if a candidate
receives a majority of first choices, he or she is elected. If nobody
has a clear majority of votes on the first count, the candidate who
receives the fewest first place choices is eliminated.  All ballots
are then retabulated, with each ballot counting as one vote for each
voter's highest ranked candidate who has not been eliminated.
Specifically, voters who chose the now-eliminated candidate will now
have their ballots added to the totals of their second ranked
candidate -- just as if they were voting in a traditional two-round
runoff election -- but all other voters get to continue supporting
their top candidate who remains in the race. The weakest candidates
are successively eliminated and their voters' ballots are added to the
totals of their next choices until a candidate earns a majority of
votes
>> Instant runoff voting allows for better voter choice and wider voter
participation by accommodating multiple candidates in single seat races
and alleviating the "spoiler effect," which can result in undemocratic
outcomes. IRV allows all voters to vote for their favorite candidate,
while avoiding the fear of helping elect their least favorite
candidate. It ensures that winners enjoy majority support when matched
against their top opponents.
>> Sec. b.  The Board of Supervisors may regulate campaign spending in
county elections.  Furthermore, the Board of Supervisors may disallow
funding from outside the county and may institute public financing of
campaigns.
>>
>> ARTICLE V:  SEVERABILITY.
>>
>>      In the event that any one or more of the articles or provisions of
this Charter contained herein shall, for any reason, be held to be
invalid, illegal or unenforceable in any respect, such invalidity,
illegality or unenforceability shall not affect any other articles
or  provisions of this Charter, and this Charter shall be
construed as if such invalid, illegal or  unenforceable article or
provision had never been contained herein.
>>
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