Council Committee Utilization

During the strategic planning sessions, there was some discussion relating to streamlining processes as well as holding less meetings, if possible.

Currently, Council Committees consist of the Personnel Committee, Finance Committee, and Public Works Committee.  All of these Committees consist of three Councilmembers who make recommendations to the full Council for action.  Staff brings the items to the following Council meeting for formal action under the Consent (unless otherwise directed by the committee or if there is a split vote) in the form of a "report from" the committee.

Occasionally, time is of the essence, and an item is forwarded to the Council that same evening as the Committee meeting.  This results in two "report from" cases for one Committee  meeting. Staff discussed writing one case for all of Council instead and either referring to the report by reference (e.g., "see Item 4.5" on the Council Agenda") or bypassing the Committee on many items.  It should be noted that neither the Charter nor the City Code specifically calls for or names standing Committees of Council.

Staff wanted to discuss the current use of Council Committees and whether the process could be streamlined and/or revised to be more responsive to the needs of the Council.

Omitting the Committee meetings every Tuesday will free up more time for work session item discussions if necessary, or it could eliminate the 5:30 p.m. start time, or one entire Tuesday meeting (the third Tuesday is Public Works).  This will free up staff time because of having to write and present only one case per item - and will save money on secretarial services for minute taking.  It may also save money on food expenditures if a later start time is implemented.

The alternatives include:

• Reducing or combining Council Committees
• Utilizing Committees only to address policy issue - possibly just one or two meetings during the year; or
• Status Quo

Staff believes that the Council Committees work best if they met only to consider policy issues on a limited basis. Staff proposes that more project decisions be made at a staff level and/or brought directly to the Council for consideration at either a work session or a Council meeting.

Currently, the Public Works and Personnel Committees meet monthly and the Finance committee has met as needed, maybe 2-3 times per year.

Committees have the advantage of making more efficient use of Council Member's time by having only threee Council Members assigned to go through the details of the particular issue, meet with residents, etc.

This is not a new budgetary item and funding for the current operation of Council Committees is provided.  


A reduced work session schedule will result in cost savings of staff and Council time, minutes, and administrative costs.

Based upon discussion.