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Measure JJ passed with flying colors during election season, signifying Dublin’s first anti-lobbying regulation and an increase to its City Council’s term limits.
Referred to as the Government Accountability Act, the measure received over 75% supportive votes, according to official results certified by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office.
Under the rules, councilmembers and commissioners cannot accept any gifts from lobbyists or city contractors; lobbyists cannot sit on the city commissions and the city must post contracts as well as monthly financial statements on its website for public review, according to the measure.
It also increases the maximum number of consecutive years in office from the equivalent of two terms (eight years) to the equivalent of three terms (12 years) combined between mayoral and council time. The longer term limits do not apply to members of the council at the time of the election.
Following the passage of Measure JJ, former Dublin mayoral candidate Tom Evans maintains his opposing stance, arguing the measure obscured a term limit extension with transparency-related items.
The city declined to comment on claims that the measure was deceptive.
“(The ordinance) promotes transparency, reduces potential conflicts of interest, and adds to state and local measures already in place that hold public officials to standards of ethical conduct,” city officials said after the measure passed.
On Nov. 7, 2023, Dublin council agreed to place Measure JJ on the ballot by a 3-2 vote, choosing verbiage staff considered likely to pass.
At that meeting, city attorney John Bakker explained that recently, California voters haven’t typically passed measures to increase term limits when voting on that single item.
“I told Linda (Smith, then Dublin city manager,) ‘Look, most of these get smoked. They go down in flames if it’s just a straightforward ballot measure,’” Bakker said at the meeting last year. “But we did identify a couple of ballot measures in two cities — one in Oxnard and one in Temple City in Los Angeles County. And those were styled, as this proposed Option 3 is styled, where the changes are accompanied by some other government accountability-type provisions. And they tended to do much better and in fact passed.”
Councilmembers Jean Josey and Kashef Qaadri considered the accountability items of option 3 as distractions to the intention of extending term limits.
In the end, then-mayor Melissa Hernandez, Qaadri and Michael McCorriston voted in favor of moving the proposed measure to the ballot. Opposition included Josey and then-vice mayor Sherry Hu.
City officials confirmed the city already followed the transparency rules laid out in the measure, prior to the council’s decision last year.
Following approval by Dublin voters, Evans said, “The authors of this measure took advantage of public fear and added the three sweeteners to the extension of term limits, knowing that most people would jump on the protection aspect of it without digging into what the measure was really about.”
The rules included in Measure JJ officially took effect on Dec. 27, following its adoption by the council on Dec. 17.
“Many citizens are sick and tired of (the) government being influenced by lobbyists and entities who are out for a buck at the expense of the public,” Evans said. “As far as why I think JJ passed, it was presented to the residents of Dublin as protection from corruption but in reality did very little other than extend term limits for future City Council members.”
