REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on a Recommendation from the Governance & Ethics Committee to Adopt New Council Policy 055 Providing for a Consolidated Set of Council Meeting Procedures and Protocols for Use by the City Council and Other City Boards, Commissions and Committees
Report
BACKGROUND
On July 2, 2024, staff prepared a report (Attachment 1) to the Governance and Ethics Committee which presented options for consideration regarding the use of Rosenberg's Rules of Order ("Rosenberg's") for meeting management procedures for public meetings. During the item, staff presented differences between Robert's Rules of Order (the current parliamentary system used by the City pursuant to City Code Section 2.10.020) and Rosenberg's Rules of Order. Existing "local" rules for procedures that the City had been formally adopted or were being using as a matter of informal policy and practice, were also presented.
At the July 2, 2024 meeting, the Committee approved a motion to direct staff to return to the Committee with a policy on meeting management protocol and recommended inclusion of a provision to split public comment between the beginning and end of a meeting, at the discretion of the presiding officer, if a substantial number of public presenters proposed to speak, and a significant amount of agendized items still remained to be considered.
On October 4, 2024, City Attorney Glen Googins presented to the Governance and Ethics Committee on the agenda item for Action on a Policy for Meeting Management protocols (Attachment 2) which included information on a recommended formal policy and procedure for consideration by the Committee. The proposed Council Policy included (a) rules consistent with current Council practices that had not yet been formalized, (b) other proposed rules and procedures taken directly or adapted from Rosenberg's Rules of Order, and (c) additional terms based on "best practice" rules used by other cities. Provisions in the proposed poli...
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