No Fremont City Charter

By David Bonaccorsi

No on Fremont Charter @ 7/28 Council Meeting:

In the past two days I have spoken before two groups - Indivisible (to a room full of members assembled at the Fellowship Hall at Niles Discovery Church and hybrid via zoom to even more people) and the equally engaged and highly educated members of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) crowded in the conference room at Suju's Thornton.

What were the takeaways? Both served more as focus groups for me when what they had to say was more important than my presentation.

Among these groups of highly engaged citizens and residents, most hadn't heard about the Charter. Or if they had, they had no idea what was in it.

The local AAUW President spoke with a Fremont's men group who met before our meeting started. She mentioned that AAUW was going to discuss the charter. None of the men had heard of the Charter.

These Fremont residents with Indivisible and AAUW had deep concerns and had questions like:

"How can we trust this Council?”

"What is their agenda?"

“What is in it for me?

“Why didn't I learn about this Charter before?"

“How much is it going to cost me?"

My response was to share that the Mayor now is signaling that this charter initiative (like the sale tax measure voted down by Council last night Tuesday, July 21) won't be on this November's ballot.

But that is not the same as actually taking a vote on 7/28 as at least 4 members of the Council need to agree.

And again, I want to credit Councilmembers Keng, Kimberlin and Campbell on 7/7 for standing up and saying no to the Charter ballot on the November ballot.

We want to make sure Councilmembers Kimberlin, Keng and Campbell are joined by the Mayor and all of the Council unanimously to say that now is not the time for a Charter.

We still need to show up to the City Council on 7/28 at 7 p.m. (3300 Capital Avenue) to make sure this Council does shelve the Charter from being on the November ballot.

And speak up or just attend, and whether you attend or not, email the Council to say no, not now and not this way (without real engagement, outreach and stakeholder improvement) by emailing the Mayor and Council at councilmeetings@fremont.gov

The Council shouldn't use the excuse that the polling is bad (it is) or that there is ballot fatigue (there is).

Those are the wrong messages because that leaves the door open that if the polling improves in 2028 or some other time, then the Council will simply dust off this flawed Charter and take it off the shelf half-baked and then well past its expiration date.

If that is what we hear from this Council next Tuesday, then they aren't really listening even if they claim they are listening - as we have yet to be heard, and our voices must count!

We need to make sure that this Charter right now in its current form is never taken off the shelf - not without real outreach and meaningful community engagement to determine whether we really need a charter.

We need to be vigilant not only on 7/28 but on 7/29 and the day after and beyond to spread the word on local issues at Council that are not being heard or covered as we have no local media or independent reliable source of information.

And to begin forming a network of our own to share information (watch this space going forward how we are forming grass roots efforts to build or ramp up our own community organizations that can respond in real time with real information that respects our intelligence as residents and voters).

I have looked at the fine print of the Charter and shared what this Charter does and why many of things in the Charter we can already do as a City without the Charter.

The only reason supporters of the Charter on this Council want a Charter now is so that the City Council can go around state law salary caps and pay itself whatever it wants to itself as salary.

And Charter supporters on Council want to get 3 four year terms (12 years and not the current 8 years) and actually for any Councilmember in his or her first term of a total of 16 years (up to 4 terms of 4 years each) buried in the fine print.

But you don’t need a Charter to vote on changing term limits when it can go to the residents of Fremont directly as a separate ballot measure.

And because now there is no sales tax measure on the November ballot and because the City Council on 7/7 indicated it would prohibit itself from raising revenue in real estate property taxes from the sale of residential or commercial property., there is no new revenue to pay for the nearly million dollars to put this Charter initiative on the ballot, and the more than $300,000 per year out of the gate to pay increased health benefits to the City Council and more staff for the Council.

Of course, better health benefits for the Council is just the beginning as health care costs rise, and the Council at any time can vote to increase their salaries, all at our taxpayer expense.

And if this Charter passed, but the Charter bans imposing real estate transfer taxes, if Elon Musk were to sell Tesla's property and move to Texas, the City wouldn’t be able to tax directly that sale.

So, the questions raised last night and today by engaged Fremont residents have no good answers - whether shelved today or taken off the shelf to put on the ballot in a future election.

We need to ask ourselves: What's in it for me? How much is this going to cost me? What services will be cut? How could this money be better spent?

No charter now – not this way.

Please show up in person on 7/28 next Tuesday to say no, not now, not this way.

And tell this Council to shelve it!

And if shelved, urge the Council to do real community engagement by meeting us where we are. And not govern by email, Instagram, Facebook, or web page on the City of Fremont website.

We need a Fremont government of, by and for the people of Fremont - and not of, by and only for the Fremont City Council.

Editor's note: David came to the Indivisible Fremont CA General meeting on 7/21/26 and made a presentation to a "packed house" of members, friends, and supporters. We were all mesmerized. Our eyes opened wide! The sense of not knowing what exactly was going on with the City Council's push to adopt a Charter has been unsettling. Our thanks and appreciate to David Bonaccorsi for an enlightening presentation. No Fremont City Charter.

Indivisible Fremont's Local Working Action Group will be in attendance at the Tuesday, July 28th City Council meeting at 7 pm at City Hall, Building A, City Council Chambers, 3300 Capitol Ave., Fremont, CA 94538. You can also email the Council - For individual emails/phone numbers for each council member, the best source is the official page: fremont.gov/government/mayor-city-council.

For more information - check out David's presentation, here on PDF.