Voters to Determine If California City’s Chief Should be Elected or Appointed

Santa Clara has California’s last elected police chief, and now it’s one step closer to letting voters decide whether to change that.

At a Tuesday evening meeting fraught with controversy over a “tainted” survey, a divided Santa Clara City Council provided feedback to city officials on a proposal to change the police chief and city clerk positions from elected to appointed, the Mercury News reports.

In June, the council established a seven-member Charter Review Committee to examine the issue and last month it voted to recommend the council place the two measures on a future ballot.

The council is expected to discuss ballot language at a meeting later this year and is aiming to put the measure to voters in March 2024. The next election for both police chief and city clerk is supposed to take place in November 2024.