Mountain View Boards and Commissions Charter Repeal

Article VIII of Mountain View's home rule charter governs the town's boards and commissions. Its general section has the Town Council appoint the members of all boards and commissions unless the charter provides otherwise, with initial terms set to overlap. Members serve without compensation, though the town pays their authorized expenses. The council can remove a member by a three-fourths majority vote of the entire council. Each board chooses its chair and vice-chair and adopts its rules of procedure.

The article also creates two standing bodies. The council sets the number of members on each by ordinance and their terms at appointment. The Board of Adjustment and Appeals hears appeals from refusals of building permits in violation of the zoning ordinance, makes exceptions in harmony with the zoning regulations' general purpose and intent, and authorizes variances subject to limits set by ordinance. Its findings and decisions are final, "subject only to judicial review." The Planning and Zoning Commission receives every proposed subdivision plat for its recommendations and approval before the council acts, holds hearings on zoning changes and may prepare a master plan for the town. Members of both must be taxpaying electors who lived in the town for at least a year before their appointment. Mountain View voters amended the board of adjustment section at charter elections in 1991, 2003 and 2023, and the planning commission section in 2003 and 2023.

A yes vote repeals all of Article VIII so that town boards and commissions can be "created by ordinance of Town Council rather than requiring a voter-approved Town Charter amendment," in the question's words. The referring ordinance cites state law and Section 13.12 of the charter, under which the charter may be amended by a council ordinance submitting the change to a vote of the town's registered electors. A no vote keeps the boards article in the charter.

A single ordinance, No. 2026-06-15-C, referred 2B and 2C, and the council's Resolution No. 2026-07-20 B urges a yes vote on each.

Question 2B proposes changing the town from a council-mayor to a council-manager form of government. The council marked 2B's changes in a draft charter it attached at first reading. In that draft the boards article remains, renumbered Article VII, with small wording edits such as "three-fourths" in place of "3/4." That draft also makes providing "administrative resources as may be required for the effective operation of all Town boards and commissions" one of the town manager's duties. Question 2C asks whether to repeal "the current Article VIII" in its entirety.