Councilmember Request for Agenda Items

Staff is largely responsible for setting agenda items and preparing the council cases.  Staff brings forward items throughout the year that are time sensitive to meet reporting deadlines, payment requirements, land use applications, etc.  Beyond the routine items, the City Council will discuss other items that are unique or non-routine.  These topics will present themselves through different avenues like citizen inquiries, topics presented at various events, the strategic planning session, or other initiatives.  Staff will attempt to prioritize timing based on various factors like desired deadlines or guest attendance availability.  Packets for city council are completed and available to the public on Thursdays prior to the meeting.  In rare instances, staff may need to finish preparing the case or add additional information in the days leading up to the meeting.

The purpose of this case is to establish an understanding of how items are added to the agenda and when those can be expected to be placed on an upcoming agenda.  Over the past several years, it has been a general practice that either the mayor themselves or two Councilmembers may request items be added to the agenda.  Though this generally is fine, timing of such notice can present challenges.  Depending on what the topic is, the level of understanding plays a large impact on how quickly staff can prepare a quality case with pertinent details where council is making a well informed decision.  Based on the level of research needed, the need to communicate with people outside our own organization and then prepare the case in a concise manner with supporting documents, a case can take hours to days to prepare.  Like in all work settings, other duties, deadline obligations and meetings schedule well in advance impact the time available for staff to prepare a last minute case.  Outside the time needed for staff to prepare the information for council, council needs time to adequately review the packets and ask any clarifying questions.  The shorter the time period to do so, the less prepared council and staff are.

The city does not have a formal established policy on this matter, but a clear understanding of expectations between the city council and staff is beneficial for everyone.  Though items may be time sensitive, the majority of items are not emergencies.  In fact, there is an established process for emergencies and how cities can respond.  In most cases, the week between a council meeting and when the next packet is prepared should allow for sufficient time to prepare a proposed case.

The other challenge to adding cases at the direction of minimal councilmembers is the unknown of the support to discuss a topic more in depth by the majority of the council.  It is the best use of staff's time to know the effort put forth in preparing information will not be received by lack of support by the majority of council.  This is not to say that if a topic is discussed, that the end result is approval in some form.  It simply means, staff's time is being used in a manner that is supported by the majority of council.

Develop a consensus understanding of how and when items are added to agendas by city councilmembers.  This will aid staff in understanding council expectations and support adjusting schedules as needed to meet these expectations.

Develop a consensus understanding of how and when items are added to agendas by city councilmembers.