TITLE
The Mayor and City Council shall discuss a future ordinance that will amend Section 2-71 of the City Code regarding regular meetings to amend the time for regular Council meetings and to authorize the City Manager to cancel regular Council meetings and to schedule work sessions. Discussion only.
AGENDA ITEM DESCRIPTION
Current practice provides that the City Council convene on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays or each month with a specified agenda format that specifies a “work session” at 6:00 p.m. followed by a “regular meeting” of the City Council at 7:00 p.m. In my opinion the current pattern is more about process than results and creates the following areas of concern:
• Inconsistent start times: In those instances when there are no items for the “work session”, the 6:00 o’clock session is not held. Although some citizens pay attention to the printed agenda, many arrive at 6:00 p.m. with the expectation that a meeting will be held only to find that they must now wait for the regular meeting to convene at 7:00 p.m.
• Additionally, on many occasions, when we do have a “work session” agenda, the agenda requires less than an hour and creates a “wait” in between meetings.
• More importantly, I think, is that the current format allows staff to present new legislation during the work session with the expectation that formal action by the City Council would follow immediately during the regular meeting.
Upon my arrival, some of you expressed concern with this process in that it did not allow sufficient time for review, contemplation, questions and constituent feedback. During my tenure, it has been my practice to introduce new legislation/policy at a city council meeting and seek formal action by the City Council at a future meeting with the exception of minor and/or housekeeping issues.
I believe you saw the value of this pattern as staff recently presented a new fee schedule for Copper Sky. The item was introduced at one meeting and brought back later for council action. This process allowed sufficient time for education, public awareness, and consensus building and resulted in a unified understanding and acceptance of the new fee schedule.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
In an effort to be more effective and efficient, it is proposed that we eliminate the “work session” as a part of our fixed meeting requirements and convene a “regular session” of the City Council at 6:00 p.m. It is further proposed that “work sessions” be called from time to time of such duration as to effectively discuss appropriate legislation/policy for the good of the public.