The 'Read and Understand' Initiative
Common sense dictates that our elected officials have a fundamental responsibility to read and understand all the ordinances they pass, and most people assume they already do. Yet there is considerable evidence that they do not, and there is currently no law requiring them to do so.
When the Board of Supervisors passed the Stream Setback Ordinance in 2003 (subsequently overturned by voters as Measure P) they did so apparently without reading it. They apparently relied on staff analysis and staff recommendations instead of reading it for themselves. During public debates on Measure P before it was defeated, several supervisors made claims directly contrary to the wording of the ordinance, and accused us of misrepresenting the ordinance when we quoted directly from it.
More recently, Planning Staff tried to pass off a 49-page radical revision of our CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) Local Guidelines as a minor administrative update, rather than as a major ordinance revision. The Staff report "executive summary" to the Board was one sentence, and the text of the revisions was not included in the package. It was posted to the BOS agenda as a first and final reading and probable passage of a resolution to adopt minor updating. It would almost certainly have been passed unanimously by the BOS without reading it if we had not intervened. There is more info about this incident here.
NVLSA hopes to correct this situation via ballot initiative requiring each Supervisor to read and understand every ordinance before voting to pass it, and to certify at the time of signing it that he or she has done so. The "Read and Understand" initiative does not provide any enforcement mechanism. It is simply a statement by the voters to the Board of Supervisors that reading and understanding the regulations they pass is part of their job description, and a fundamental part of their responsibility to the public.
The Read and Understand Act
Whereas the people of Napa County do hereby find that:
1) Each Napa County Supervisor’s responsibilities to the people of Napa County include the duty to thoroughly read and understand every ordinance, regulation, or resolution prior to voting to pass it;
2) Some ordinances are complex and not easy to thoroughly understand, especially with only a cursory reading;
3) Passing an ordinance not thoroughly understood carries significant risk of adverse unintended consequences for the people of Napa County;
4) A County Supervisor might occasionally be tempted to just cursorily read, or not read at all, a complex ordinance, regulation, or resolution and documents adopted by resolution, and to rely primarily on staff analysis of an ordinance to gain an understanding of it; and
5) A Supervisor’s responsibility to read and understand is not met by solely or primarily relying on staff analysis of a proposed ordinance, regulation or resolution;
Now, therefore, the people of Napa County resolve and do hereby ordain that:
1) Each and every County Supervisor who votes to approve any new ordinance, regulation, or resolution shall first have thoroughly read and understood it, including its direct and indirect impacts on the citizens of Napa County, and shall certify in writing at the time of voting in favor of the ordinance, regulation, or resolution; and prior to its going into effect, that he/she has read it thoroughly and has thoroughly understood its direct and indirect impacts on the citizens of Napa County prior to voting to approve it.
2) Nothing herein shall be construed to prohibit any Supervisor from simply voting “NO”; or from insisting that a complex ordinance be rewritten or simplified prior to voting on it; or from enlisting the assistance of County staff or outside consultants as necessary to achieve the required degree of understanding, as long as that Supervisor also reads it thoroughly and as many times as necessary in order to gain or confirm his/her own understanding.
3) If any part of this ordinance or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications which can reasonably be given effect without the invalid provision or application.
End of initiative