city's financial condition and its future financial needs; (5) appoint and remove all heads of departments, superintendents and other employees of the city.

SECTION 13. Such city officers and employees as the council shall determine are necessary for the proper administration of the city shall be appointed by the city manager, and any other officer or employee may be removed by him; but the city manager shall report every such appointment and removal to the council at the next meeting thereof following any such appointment or removal.

SECTION 14. The officers and employees of the city shall perform such duties as may be required of them by the city manager, under general regulations of the city council.

Approved May 20, 1915.

58. A City Manager Charter

The charter of Berkeley was drafted by a board of fifteen freeholders under the home-rule provisions of the California constitution. This body was elected on November 21, 1908, and the document which it framed was ratified at a special municipal election during the following January. Formal approval of the legislature was given the new charter by an act of March 4, 1909.

Technically, this document is still the organic law of the city of Berkeley, although the form of government prescribed has been greatly changed by subsequent amendments. Perhaps the most important of these amendments were those approved January 20, 1923, providing for the manager form of government. By 1923 the manager plan was no longer in the experimental stage of its development, and it was possible for Berkeley to take advantage of the experience of other cities. In many respects the amended charter is typical of the more advanced and liberal provisions for this type of municipal government.

The full charter, as amended, is a very lengthy document, filling a booklet of more than eighty pages. Obviously, the complete document cannot be reprinted here. The extracts which are given have been selected to show the general form of the charter, the special provisions ap

plying to the manager type of government, and the general organization and powers of the city and its officials.

SOURCE-Charter of the City of Berkeley [as amended to 1923] (Berkeley, 1923), 5-78.

CHARTER

OF THE

CITY OF BERKELEY

ARTICLE I.

NAME AND RIGHTS OF THE CITY

Sec. 1. The municipal corporation now existing and known as the Town of Berkeley shall remain and continue a body politic and corporate in name and in fact, by the name of the City of Berkeley, and by such name shall have perpetual succession. . . .

ARTICLE II.

BOUNDARIES

Sec. 3. The boundaries of the City of Berkeley shall be as follows:

ARTICLE III.

ELECTIONS

A municipal election shall be held on the first Tuesday in May, 1923, and biennially thereafter. All such elections shall be known as regular municipal elections. All other municipal elections that may be held shall be known as special municipal elections.

Sec. 5. (1) All elective officers shall be elected by the preferential system.

(2) The name of a candidate shall be printed upon the ballot when a petition of nomination shall have been filed in his behalf in the manner and form and under the conditions hereinafter set forth.

(3) The petition of nomination shall consist of not less than twenty-five individual certificates. .

ARTICLE IV.

RECALL OF ELECTIVE OFFICERS

Sec. 7. (1) Every incumbent of an elective office, whether elected by popular vote or appointed to fill a vacancy, is subject to recall by the voters of the city. The procedure to effect such removal from office shall be as follows:

(2) A petition signed by qualified electors equal in number to twenty per centum of the entire vote cast for Mayor at the last preceding general municipal election at which a Mayor was elected, demanding an election of a successor of the officer sought to be removed, shall be addressed to the Council and presented to the City Clerk. The petition may request such election to be held at a special municipal election or at the next general municipal election. The petition must contain a statement of the reasons for the demand..

(4) If the officer sought to be removed shall not resign within five days after the petition is filed by the City Clerk, and if the petition requests a special election, the Council shall cause a special election to be held within forty-five days to determine whether the people will recall said officer, or, if a general municipal election is to occur within sixty days, the Council may in its discretion postpone the holding of such election to such general municipal election.

(5) In the published call for the election there shall be printed in not more than two hundred words the reasons for demanding the recall of the officer as set forth in the Recall petition, and in not more than two hundred words the officer may justify his course in office.

(6) The officer sought to be removed shall be deemed a candidate and, unless he resigns, his name shall be printed on the ballot. The nomination of other candidates and the election shall be in accordance with the provisions of Section 5.

(7) The officer sought to be removed, shall, if he do not resign, continue to perform the duties of his office until the election, and, if he fail of election, he shall be deemed removed from office.

(8) No recall petition shall be filed against any officer until he has actually held his office for at least three months.

(9) No person who has been recalled from an elective office, or who has resigned from such office while recall proceedings were

pending against him, shall be appointed to any office within one year after such recall or resignation.

ARTICLE V.

ELECTIVE OFFICERS

Sec. 8. The elective officers of the City shall be a Mayor, an Auditor, eight Councilmen and four School Directors.

The Council shall consist of the Mayor and eight Councilmen, each of whom, including the Mayor, shall have the right to vote on all questions coming before the Council. . .

Sec. 9. The Mayor, Auditor, Councilmen and School Directors shall be elected at the general municipal election on a general ticket from the City at large.

Sec. 10. To be eligible for the office of Mayor, Auditor or Councilman, a person must be a citizen of the United States and qualified elector of the State of California and of the City of Berkeley.

Sec. 14. The Mayor and Auditor shall each hold office for a term of four years from and after the first day of July after his election and until his successor is elected and qualified.

Sec. 15. The Councilmen shall hold office for a term of four years from and after the first day of July after their election and until their successors are elected and qualified. Provided, that the Councilmen first elected after the adoption of this amendment shall, at their first meeting, so classify themselves by lot that four of them shall hold office for two years and four of them for four years.

At each general municipal election after the first election held after the adoption of this amendment, there shall be elected four Councilmen..

Sec. 19. The Councilmen shall each receive a fee of five dollars for each meeting of the Council which he shall attend; and the Mayor shall receive a fee of ten dollars for each meeting of the Council which he shall attend provided, that neither a Councilman nor the Mayor shall receive such fees for more than four meetings in any one calendar month.

The Auditor shall receive an annual salary of $3,000, payable in equal monthly installments.

...

ARTICLE VI.

THE MAYOR

Sec. 21. The Mayor shall be the chairman of the Council, and shall preside at the meetings of the Council and perform such other duties consistent with his office as may be imposed by the Council. He shall be entitled to a vote on all matters coming before the Council, but shall possess no veto power. He shall be recognized as the official head of the City for all ceremonial purposes, by the courts for the purposes of serving civil processes, and by the Governor for military purposes. He may use the title of Mayor in any case in which the execution of contracts or other legal instruments in writing, or other necessity arising from the general laws of this State, may so require; but this shall not be construed as conferring upon him administrative or judicial functions or other powers or functions of a Mayor, under the general laws of the State. The powers and duties of the Mayor shall be such as are conferred upon him by this amendment, together with such others as may be conferred by the Council in the pursuance of the provisions of this amendment, and no others.

Sec. 22. During the temporary absence or disability of the Mayor, the Vice-President of the Council shall act as Mayor pro tempore. In case of the temporary absence or disability of both the Mayor and Vice-President the Council shall elect one of its members to be Mayor pro tempore. . . .

ARTICLE VII.

EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS

Sec. 27. The Council shall appoint an officer, who shall be known as the City Manager, who shall be the administrative head of the Municipal Government and who shall be responsible for the efficient administration of all departments. He shall receive such salary as may be fixed by the Council: provided, however, that said salary shall not exceed the sum of $10,000 per annum. He shall be chosen by the Council without regard to his political beliefs, and solely on the basis of his executive and administrative qualifications.

He shall be appointed for an indefinite period. He can not be removed from office except by a vote of six members of the Council.