This is an informational presentation and requires no action.  Staff requests feedback from Council regarding how it would like to proceed and any changes it would like to see to Article 2 of BMCC.

City Council has indicated it would like to see changes made to section 2-214, BMCC - Order of business for regular meetings.  City Council has routinely been making motions to modify the order of business to accommodate public comment on non-agenda items earlier in the meeting instead of at the end of meeting.  Because the order of business is dictated by ordinance, City Council is required to modify the order of business by a formal vote at every meeting.  

During the review of this section (2-214), legal staff enlarged the scope of review and included sections 2-211 through 2-241, which encompass all the rules of procedure for City Council meetings.  Legal staff made several formatting changes to "clean up" various sections and to clarify procedures. 

Apparently, there were previous discussions in late 2019 and early 2020 about removing the rules of procedure from BMCC and enacting such procedures through Council resolution to make it easier to modify processes in the future, when necessary.  However, City Charter section 3.10 provides that "[t]he Council shall establish by ordinance its rules of procedure and time and place of meetings."  Therefore, it is not possible to remove these provisions from BMCC without a Charter amendment.  Additionally, it appears that City Council previously repealed prior resolutions that established City Council meeting times and rules of order on October 23, 2002. See attached Resolution 02-17874.  Apparently, despite the Charter requirement in section 3.10, previous City Councils had been establishing its rules of procedure and time/place of meeting by resolution for many years until it took action to discontinue this practice in October 2002.  

Legal staff has also prepared a separate resolution regarding remote participation during meetings.  This resolution specifies Council's policy and requirements for remote participation at meetings.  

At the August 1, 2022, work session, this was presented to Council and several Councilmembers indicated they wanted to provide edits and additional feedback on the proposed ordinance and resolution.  This current agenda item is to bring the matter back before Council for follow up.  Additionally, Councilmembers Shaw and Owen have previously proposed several standing council committees and have prepared a draft resolution to establish those committees. It is staff's understanding that Council may wish to refer this matter to a Council committee for consideration.

Based on city code, a resolution is not required to establish Council committees, even if it is considered a “standing committee” of Council.  Council subcommittees are authorized by section 2-223:
 
This section allows for an ad hoc committee to be created for a special purpose and it can be an ongoing committee that meets regularly or only as needed. 

A resolution is only required if Council was creating an advisory committee pursuant to 2-224, which consists of members outside of Council, for example, the recently created Citizen’s Police Advisory Board.

Sec. 2-224. - Ad hoc council advisory committees.  
 
There is some confusion about when a resolution is required based on the requirement of 2-224 but it is my opinion that the committees created by 2-224 are those committees that consist of non-council members created to advise Council.  The committees created under 2-223 are from the membership of Council and while they certainly "advise" Council, they are not considered "advisory committees" as contemplated by 2-224.  While 2-223 uses the word “subcommittees” and does not use the word "committees", clearly they are not to be considered subcommittees of the committees created by 2-224 because the language of 2-223 explicitly states that the subcommittees created under 2-223 are created by city council from their number.  Therefore, these are separate entities that are contemplated by the two code sections.  The better word to use in 2-223 would have been “Council committees” rather than “Council subcommittees” but I believe that term was chosen to imply that these committees are working (sub)committees of council members only and not outside persons.

If Council wants to expedite the creation of the committees, the resolution can be dispensed with and the committee members could be appointed at any regular business meeting.  However, if Council wishes to have the formality of explicitly creating the committee as well as the purpose, scope, and term of those committees, the resolution is appropriate. The resolution drafted by Councilmembers Owen and Shaw is attached to this memo.
 

The only alternative for item is to engage in discussion and provide any feedback on how Council would like to proceed on these issues.

There is no significant fiscal impact regarding this agenda item.