VISTA -- It's only three pages long, but the city's recently proposed charter -- in effect, a municipal constitution -- would give officials significantly more control over city affairs.

Download the charter proposal

The charter, city officials say, would make the city less subject to the whims of the state Legislature and provide opportunities to save millions of dollars on major capital projects, such as a new civic center.

"It seems like we'd be negligent if we didn't take this action," Councilman Steve Gronke said last week before joining his colleagues in a 4-0 vote to put the document before city voters on June 5.

While city charters can be structured in many different ways, their goals are essentially the same: wresting authority from the state to give cities greater flexibility in, and control over, their affairs.

"It's a grant of authority from the people to the government," said Glen Sparrow, a retired professor emeritus at San Diego State University's School of Public Administration and Urban Planning, who has worked on several city charters in California.

"The idea is to give a set of rules that the city can operate under," he said.

Charter basics

Thus far, residents have had little to say about the proposed charter. A draft was made available just one day before the council's vote on Tuesday, the last day suggested by election officials to call a special election.

"It has not even been on our radar," said Jim Baumann, chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce last week. "I think it's definitely worth exploring."

If Vista's constitution is adopted by a majority vote, the city would join San Marcos, Del Mar and Chula Vista, among many others, in the state's club of charter cities. Of the 478 cities in California, 109 have charters. The rest are considered "general law" cities.

Whereas charter cities get their authority from the state Constitution, general law cities answer to the state Legislature, a chain of authority that often frustrates local officials.

"Over the years, the Legislature has had a certain fondness for trying to micromanage local government," Pieper told the council last week while outlining his case for a Vista charter.

"True home rule," he said, "really requires that a city have a charter in place."

Cities often tailor their charters to address local concerns. Del Mar's document, for example, allows it to impose an admissions tax on the racetrack and fairgrounds, while the San Marcos charter preserves rent control for mobile-home tenants.

Some cities adopt charters to change election procedures or establish a different type of government.

But charters don't give city leaders absolute power.

Their authority is limited to "municipal affairs," the meaning of which "changes over time through a variety of court decisions," said retired municipal lawyer John Kaheny, who spent more than two decades in the San Diego city attorney's office and later became Chula Vista's city attorney.

Over the years, Pieper said, more and more issues have been declared matters of statewide concern, so the authority granted by a charter "is in very limited areas."

Money saver

Putting a charter on the ballot will cost Vista between $250,000 and $300,000, but city officials said last week that if it passes, it will be a good investment.

"The savings (are) unbelievable," said Councilman Frank Lopez, a longtime advocate of the plan.

Charter cities, for example, are free from state-imposed wage requirements (what former Vista Councilman Paul Campo referred to last week as "gilded wages") on city-funded projects.

San Marcos City Manager Paul Malone said that freedom from paying prevailing wages has "been a tangible benefit" to his city, saving "many hundreds of thousands of dollars … if not millions."

After the San Marcos two-page charter was adopted in 1994, "dozens of large capital projects went out the door as nonprevailing wage jobs," Malone said.

With several of its own capital projects in the pipeline, Vista officials are hungrily eyeing those financial freedoms.

Pieper estimated that over the next few years, Vista could save $10 million on the planned construction of a civic center, sports park, stage house at the Moonlight Amphitheatre and two fire stations.

Charter cities also have the power to adopt their own rules for contracting out public works jobs. That means a chartered Vista would be exempt from the competitive bidding statutes that general law cities must abide by for public works contracts worth more than $5,000.

City officials have said this would allow the city to give priority to local contractors, if appropriate.

That raises concerns about favoritism, said Phil Taylor, a Vista resident and critic of Proposition L, the half-cent sales tax increase that voters passed in November.

"Is this a way to pay off people who helped pass Prop. L?" he said in an interview last week.

A declaration of financial independence

Like the San Marcos charter, Vista's document includes two passages that seek to protect city revenue from state demands. One tells the state that it can't take revenue raised and collected by the city. The other exempts city employees from performing unfunded state programs.

Malone said that in San Marcos, this section was really a "statement of economic independence," but added that hasn't had much of an "emotional impact on the state."

"The state is ultimately going to do what it thinks it needs to do," Malone said.

He added that until that article of the charter is tested in court, "we really won't know what level of protection it affords us."

Pieper acknowledged last week that including this language in Vista's charter probably wouldn't put a permanent padlock on city coffers, but it could protect the city from some potential threats.

"I believe that it is useful to protect revenues that belong to the city," Pieper said. "It is of limited if any value with respect to revenues that come from the state that might be intercepted before they get to the city."

Broad is better?

Some charters, especially those for large cities, are weighty documents, outlining dozens of specific rules and procedural guidelines, but other charters are just a few pages.

"The modern trend for charters is short and simple," Pieper said. "There really is no reason to revert to an older model that requires continuous updating."

At only three pages, Vista's document falls into what officials might call short and sweet. Cities choosing this route typically make a broad declaration, then set up specific rules via ordinance, Kaheny said.

"It's not typical, but it's not unusual," Kaheny said.

When building support for a charter at the ballot box, less may be more.

"If you write a very brief charter that is not in fact controversial, it's going to be much easier for it to be passed," Sparrow said.

During the last few decades, Oceanside residents have voted against charter proposals several times after the city's political factions "used their charter fights as their political battlegrounds," Sparrow said.

Sparrow said that while he had not seen Vista's draft, he usually prefers a more detailed charter.

"A charter is a good way for local governments to get some distance between them and the state, but if you make it a very broad grant of authority, then you're giving a good deal of power to very few people," Sparrow said.

Pieper said, however, that city officials will always be held accountable to the public.

"The concept of a runaway council just is not consistent with history," Pieper said of other charter cities, "and it's something that's readily handled through the ballot box."

Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at (760) 631-6621 or ctenbroeck@nctimes.com.