(a) At the second council meeting in January each year or as soon thereafter as may be practicable, the city council shall select seven emergency standby council members. Emergency standby council members shall be selected from former members of the city council who agree to serve in that capacity during that year and to reside within the city of Palo Alto during that year so long as they elect to participate as members of the emergency standby council. A member of the emergency standby council shall serve in that capacity from the date of appointment until the appointment of another emergency standby council the following year, unless and until the member notifies the city clerk in writing that the member has elected to terminate participation in the emergency standby council. Each emergency standby council member shall take the oath of office required for the city council prior to assuming the position of emergency standby council member.
(b) Each emergency standby council member appointed by the city council as described in subsection (a) shall have the duty during the term of that member's appointment to remain informed of the duties of city council members and the business and affairs of the city of Palo Alto to the extent necessary to enable participation as a member of the city council upon appointment in the event of an emergency as provided hereafter.
(c) In the event of the declaration of a state of war emergency, a state of emergency, or a local emergency as those terms are designated in Articles 12, 13, and 14 of Title 2 of the California Government Code and less than a quorum of the city council is available and a city council meeting is urgently required, the members of the emergency standby council shall be contacted for service. At that meeting, any city council members who are unavailable for duty at the time of that meeting as defined by section 8636 of the California Government Code (unavailable such as the officer is either killed, missing, or so seriously injured as to be unable to attend meetings and otherwise perform the duties of office), shall be replaced by a member of the emergency standby council as necessary to reach seven members. The order of selection of emergency standby council members shall be determined by council policy. The appointment of members of the emergency standby council to fill vacancies created by the unavailability of city council members at any time during a state of emergency shall be performed by city council, and additional emergency standby members shall be appointed during the state of emergency as required to maintain a total of seven members on the city council.
(d) Members of the emergency standby council who are appointed to serve as city council members shall serve in that position until replaced by a member of the city council who becomes no longer unavailable such that the addition of emergency standby council members is no longer necessary in order to constitute a quorum, until termination of the state of emergency, or until the election or appointment of a new regular city council member as provided by law.
(Ord. 4913 § 2, 2006)