Consideration of  Approval: Amendments to the City Council Rules of Procedure

The City Council recently discussed proposed amendments to the City Council Rules of Procedure that address: FAIR requests, start time of regular meetings, the fourth Tuesday in a five-Tuesday month and a standing item on the agenda for Council liaison reports. While preparing the final amendments to reflect prior Council discussion, the question arose, "If we are changing the number of Councilmembers required to move an item forward to less than a majority, is there any reason to continue the F.A.I.R. process?"

As a little history, it was not until the number required to move an item forward was changed to four (a majority) that we started having the F.A.I.R. item on the agenda to enable an actual vote to be taken. Now that the number is being reduced to less than a quorum, there is no legal reason to continue the FAIR process, although there may be other benefits to it. To provide the Council with an opportunity to select which process they prefer, staff has included both options.

Option One (red text) reflects the discussion held last week. The FAIR process would continue, but it would only require two members of Council to move an item forward. Option Two (blue text) provides for a less formal process of obtaining two members interested in moving an item forward without the formality of first placing it on the agenda to determine that agreement.

Either of these options would still include the date of the placement of such item on a future agenda to be determined by the City Manager, as directed in the City's Charter.

The other changes (green text) reflect the other changes requested by Council that would apply to either option. These include:

• The change of time to start the regular meetings from 4:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• The fourth Tuesday in a five-Tuesday month will provide an opportunity for a work session, either at City Hall or in the community.
• Inclusion of Council Liaison Reports as a standing item on the regular meeting agendas.
• Additional time (from 3 to 5 minutes) for those speakers assisted by a translator.
• Changing the time from 10:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. to require a vote before starting a new agenda item.

One more item case up during a meeting this week with regard to Public Hearings, and since this is included in the Rules of Procedures, we have included proposed changes for your consideration. In 2015, the Rules of Procedure were amended to specify that a Public Hearing began at the beginning of an issue and did not close until after a motion was eventually made to ensure that all of the discussion was included in the record; however, that does occur. It appears to have caused some confusion on the part of the public when there is a Public Hearing scheduled, but public comment is not received, so staff is recommending that Council consider going back to the same process used in the past. This proposed amendment is shown in Rule 9.02, Public Hearings. 

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COUNCIL GOALS:
8) Improve effectiveness of notification, communication, and engagement with residents, neighborhoods and businesses and about City services, programs, policies, projects and developments

The City Council discussed these changes at their Retreat of January 3, 2017.

1) The Council could adopt the amendments as presented;
2) Make additional changes; or
3) Not adopt the amendments.

Inform