City Council Announcements
October 5, 2010
A. Information Needed by Council Staff
1. The Chair and Vice Chair requested that the Council have the opportunity to have a group discussion on a possible reformatting of City Council meeting nights. Attached is a calendar representing a new Council schedule. The Council would hold policy discussions, work sessions, and formal meetings the first two Tuesdays of the month, and on the third Tuesday, the Council would hold a work session and RDA meeting, but no formal meeting. During summer and holiday months (July, August, December), the Council would still only meet two Tuesdays and have formal meetings both nights. (1st week do a policy discussion, work session, and formal meeting and the 2nd week do RDA, work session and formal meeting.) The attached map is color coded to differentiate the types of meetings.
By scheduling formal meetings on the first two Tuesdays and not on the third Tuesday, the Council will have larger blocks of time for developing policy items and discussing key issues, more time for deliberation, both Council and Administrative staff will have some additional time to provide information and responses to the Council, and public comment will be preserved. In addition, some other efficiency may be realized in reducing time shuffling between the Chamber and Committee of the Whole room, reduced time for shifting and set-up for the City Recorder and Channel17 crew, and potential to end all meetings earlier.
Would the Council be interested in changing the meeting schedule as per attached? All Council Members were in favor but wanted to hold regular council meetings on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. They also wanted to start the new schedule in January of 2011.
2. Due to the general election on Tuesday, November 2nd, the Council scheduled a meeting on Thursday, November 4th. At least one Council Member has voiced a conflict with this date. The Council Chair and Vice Chair would suggest meeting three times in November to finalize pending issues by the end of the year.
Would the Council prefer to meet on Thursday, November 4th or Tuesday, November 23rd? Council Members were in favor of only holding two meetings in November.