(A) 
The City of Santa Rosa embraces a culture of open government in an effort to ensure public trust, engage the community, and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration.
(B) 
In 2013, the Mayor of Santa Rosa convened the Mayor's Open Government Task Force (herein known as the Task Force) to improve openness and transparency in Santa Rosa municipal government. The Task Force presented its report to the Santa Rosa City Council on December 2, 2014. The report offered recommendations in four areas:
(1) 
Immediate Actions for Council.
(a) 
Set a Council goal of "open and transparent government."
(b) 
Set three strategic objectives for the organization:
(i) 
Hire a communications director (now Community Engagement Director).
(ii) 
Adopt a sunshine ordinance based on the recommendations of the Task Force.
(iii) 
Create a mission statement for the City which embraces community engagement.
(2) 
Develop a culture that values public engagement.
(3) 
Develop a culture based on communication.
(4) 
Develop policies that promote openness.
This chapter is thus just one component of the recommendations of the Task Force.
(C) 
Democracy in our representative form of government requires that the public has an early and adequate opportunity to understand the government's activities and to communicate its thoughts and concerns to its elected and appointed representatives, and that those representatives have an early and adequate opportunity to consider those thoughts and concerns and then act effectively and in a timely manner. The City of Santa Rosa honors all of those who live in our community and values their input and feedback.
(D) 
The government's obligation is to balance these expectations responsibly in such a way that it is able to function and carry out its mission of ensuring the public's health, safety and general welfare in a fiscally and environmentally sustainable manner.
(E) 
Openness strengthens our democracy and promotes efficiency and effectiveness in Government, and must be embedded in the City's way of doing business by implementing sustainable structures that transcend political and staffing fluctuations.
(F) 
Accordingly, the purpose of this chapter is to establish new local standards to supplement the provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act and the California Public Records Act, and to codify certain existing policies and practices that exceed the State law requirements. This chapter allows opportunities to adopt new practices based on the recommendations of the Mayor's Open Government Task Force to ensure that the public has an early and adequate opportunity to be informed of the City's activities, to communicate its thoughts and concerns to its elected and appointed officials, and to work collaboratively to develop solutions in a participatory manner.
(Ord. 2020-018 § 1)
The following words and phrases shall have the meanings specified below:
"Agenda"
means a document that informs the public of the time and place of a public meeting and the items to be transacted or discussed at that meeting, including items to be discussed in closed session.
"Agenda packet"
means the agenda of a particular meeting with all associated supporting documents.
"Brown act"
means the Ralph M. Brown Act codified in California Government Code Section 54950 et seq., as that Act may be amended from time to time.
"Business days"
means Monday through Friday, excluding Federal and State holidays.
"Citizen's guidebook"
means a reference tool prepared by the City in accordance with Section 1-10.060 of this chapter.
"Closed session"
means a meeting of the legislative body conducted in private without the attendance of the public or press in accordance with State law and the provisions of Section 1-10.050 of this chapter.
"Data"
means facts or statistics gathered or generated by City departments concerning City operations, programs and projects.
"Legislative body"
shall have the meaning set forth in Government Code Section 54952, as such section may be amended from time to time.
"Meeting"
shall have the meaning set forth in Government Code Section 54952.2, as such section may be amended from time to time.
"Minutes"
means a document summarizing what transpired at a meeting, prepared in accordance with Section 1-10.070 of this chapter.
"Open by default"
means that all data generated by the City shall be open to public review unless such date contain information that is exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act or any other Federal, State or local law, rule or regulation.
"Open data portal"
means a single web portal incorporated into the City's website that contains all disclosable City data for view and use by the public.
"Public records act"
means the Public Records Act, as codified in California Government Code Section 6250 et seq., as such Act may be amended from time to time.
"Presiding officer"
means the officer with the authority and responsibility for presiding over a meeting.
"Supporting documents"
means: (1) materials prepared by staff for submission to the legislative body in connection with a particular agenda item, including staff report, proposed resolution(s), powerpoint presentation(s), and attachments, if any; and (2) correspondence submitted by the public through a designated portal, identified for inclusion in the agenda packet in connection with the particular agenda item, and received at least one business day prior to the posting of the final agenda in accordance with Section 1-10.030(C).
(Ord. 2020-018 § 1)