The council met for a work session late last week to discuss how and when a council member can place items on a meeting agenda, when work sessions would be held, and revived a practice of holding listening posts. Mayor Eric Bookmeyer was not in attendance.
The council agreed on the following procedures:
The Council Meetings will remain at 7:00 P.M. on the first and third Tuesday of the month. A flow chart has been presented to the Council that outlines an easier way for the Council members to place items on the Agenda. It was the consensus of the Council to strike out the reference to the flow chart and replace it with “A Council Member wanting to place an item on the Agenda of a regularly scheduled Council Meeting must contact the City Administrator or Deputy Clerk by Noon on the Thursday before the meeting.”
Council Work Sessions may be held on alternate Tuesday’s at 7:00 P.M. in the Mason City Room of the Mason City Public Library. When the Mason City Room has a schedule conflict, a work session will be held in City Hall, Conference Room A. The meetings will be televised when conducted in the Mason City Room. On the occasional months with five Tuesdays, no work session will be held. The public will not be allowed to speak at work sessions that focus on policy or ordinance development. They will be allowed to speak at work sessions that involve “hot button” issues. The seating arrangements at work sessions will be informal. The Council discussed when work sessions should be held and how many per month with the consensus being work sessions should be set for the 4th Tuesday of every month that way the Council could hold that date in reserve. The time would be “as determined” generally starting between the hours of 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. If an additional work session was needed the Administrator would advise the Council as soon as possible. Further Council discussion followed regarding whether or not the public should be allowed to speak during work sessions on “hot button” issues. It was the consensus of the Council that public comments be allowed at the Mayor’s discretion.
The Public Input portion of the Council Meetings will be limited to five minutes per person. No rebuttals will be allowed by members of the public. It was the consensus of the Council that the time should remain the same (five minutes) but that “Public Input” should be changed to “Public Forum”.
Members of the public may not be allowed to speak on Action Items unless it is necessary to do so for clarification purposes. Members of the public wishing to comment on an issue that is an Action Item may do so during the Public Input part of the Council Meetings. It was the consensus of the Council that “Public Input” should be changed to “Public Forum” and worded so that comments made either during the Public Form or Public Hearing be limited to five minutes with no rebuttals (the reference to Action Items should be removed). Comments from the public pertaining to Public Hearing Agenda items should be provided during the Public Hearing portion of the meeting.
Some Boards and Commissions, by City Code, require membership on another Board or Commission. The Mayor will not appoint an individual to more than one Board or Commission and will try to balance experience with persons who have not been active in city government. The Council will still have the opportunity to confirm or deny an appointment.
The City Council will host four (4) Listening Posts each year, one in each Ward. The Listening Posts will be held in an informal setting and will not be televised. Mayor Pro tem Tornquist suggested 4 Ward Meetings be scheduled during the year (one each quarter). The meetings would involve three Council Members to remove the possibility of violating the Open Meetings Law. The Council Members in attendance would be the two At-Large Council Members (himself and Kuhn) and the respective Council Member for that ward. This would allow for a more informal discussion with the public. He also clarified that the meetings would be open to the general public, but held quarterly in a different ward and ideally scheduled on the 4th Tuesday of the month when there was no Worksession scheduled. The location and time of the meetings would be at the discretion of the Council Member for that ward and they would be in charge of finding the location. Following further discussion it was the consensus of the Council to proceed as outlined by Tornquist and Kuhn.
There will be no Council sub-committees. The Council as a whole will discuss topics at work sessions.
City Council members may address City staff at any time for any length of time, regarding issues, but may not give City staff direction. It was the consensus of the Council that “Council Members may defer a portion of their five minutes to staff, but were still limited to the five minute rule.” It was also noted that the Council could make a motion to extend debate should they wish to continue discussion.
The Mayor will continue to briefly read the Consent Agenda during the Council Meetings. The Council agreed that the Mayor should read the items listed on the Consent Agenda when coming to that portion of the Agenda.
Guest speakers are allowed up to 8 minutes of time during the business meeting to address the Council. It was the consensus of the Council to clarify that under Special Items of Business guest speakers were limited to eight minutes and anyone presenting during the Public Hearing would be limited to five minutes unless prior arraignments were made and authorized by the Mayor.
Council members are expected to be prepared to discuss the issue and limit themselves to 5 minutes on remarks on an issue. Remarks will be relevant to the issue being discussed.
After the 5 minutes of remarks from the Council Member, and after all Council Members have had an opportunity to address the issue, each Council Member will be provided an opportunity for 3 additional minutes for further comments. It was the consensus of the Council to combine Items #9, #14 and #15 and change the verbiage of Item #14 to read “Council Members comments shall be germane to the Agenda item being discussed.” It was also the consensus of the Council to add an additional item that all meeting procedures not specifically mentioned would follow Roberts Rules.
Listening Post: Council discussion followed regarding whether or not the Listening Post should be televised, whether Council Members should be allowed to answer questions posed to them or the Mayor or Administrator, how long people should be allowed to talk, whether staff should be there and concerns regarding Open Meetings Law. It was the consensus of the majority of the Council that the Mayor be the designated as the moderator and allow the Council to respond accordingly.
“Just man up and leave.” We are waiting for you to go first (as promised).
Only because they were talked about. They learned something from the good guys. About how they disrespect when it comes to the citizens. They thought we better up it a little bit even though we don’t care what we have to say.
Real obvious. Everyone is sooo on to all of them. Even the close ones. Too bad a huge majority of our citizens did not vote.
Good in the sense it’s ALL on them now. Not to mention a good portion of their secrets will come out in 4 yrs time. No doubt about it.
Thank you Matt! If, when and how they follow thru will be a lasting tribute to your campaign and your people first advocacy.
I hope there will be a change at the city council meetings but time will tell. Mayor said over 3 years ago you couldn’t be on more than 1 board or commission lets see the next 4 years. Let’s hope it is true he will stop appointing his buddies and put people on that really care and knows what is going on. For not going to debates except for Kuhn being in the audience must have went back and told the gang how upset people were on how the meetings were being run and who gets put on commissions and boards. Hickey knows how the atmosphere was at the North End meeting. I really do hope the future will be a good one.
So, something good came out of the election after all.
I couldn’t agree with you more. This is just another example of the people having to wait until this all became the “old guards” idea. Since its their idea now, that makes this OK….. in their opinion.