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Agenda Item 7.

City Council Meeting

Meeting Date:	03/05/2019
FROM:	Bill Gallardo

Subject:

City Council Agenda Item Requests During General Session

RECOMMENDATION

City Council to review procedures regarding how future agenda items are requested during General Session at City Council Meetings.

BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION

At the January 15, 2019 City Council Meeting, the City Council amended its Code of Conduct regarding the protocol for City Council Member requests for future meeting agenda items. As a result of this revision, the City Council Code of Conduct allows an item to be placed on the agenda of a future meeting at the request of at least two City Council Members. Agenda requests may be made during City Council Study Sessions, under the agenda section titled “Council Member Reports/Requests”.

The City Council Code of Conduct contains a section titled "Policies and Protocol Related to Conduct" that explains the request procedures. An excerpt from this section outlining the procedures is listed below:

Agenda Items
The Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem, in consultation with the City Manager, shall determine agenda items for City Council Meetings. However, to ensure all Council Member views are represented, study session agendas contain a section titled “Council Member Reports/ Requests”. In addition to their reports, this portion of the meeting allows any Council Member to request an agenda item for a future meeting, and allows the City Council to have a short discussion on the request (but not on the substance of the item). Any request must include an explanation of the issue and the goal of the proposed Council discussion. If at least one other Council Member indicates support for the request at that time, then the item shall be placed on a future agenda. Upon support for the request, the Council will provide direction to staff on information that is desired to be presented when the item is placed on a future agenda. Additionally, with the advice of the City Manager and City Attorney, the Council will provide direction to staff on the type of meeting (regular or special) and the type of session (closed, study, or general) at which the item will be considered. The Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem shall schedule the item no later than 45 days following the request, unless the Council Member who requested the item consents to it being placed on the agenda of a later meeting.

Topics may arise during the General Session portion of City Council Meetings that the City Council may have an interest in discussing at a future meeting. However, currently, there is no protocol in place to allow for future agenda requests to be made during General Session. Staff has proposed options for the Council's consideration to discuss alternative ways future agenda items requests can be made:

Option 1 - Create an agenda section titled "Council Member Reports/Requests" to be added to the General Session agenda. This item would be placed during the "Administrative Announcements" section towards the end of the meeting. Requests made during this section would mirror the same protocol currently in place for City Council Study Session agenda requests. In sum, this would allow the City Council to make agenda requests at both the Study Session and General Session portions of City Council Meetings.

Option 2 - Transfer the City Council Meeting agenda section titled "Council Member Reports/Requests" from the Study Session agenda to the General Session agenda. This item would occur during the agenda sections titled "Administrative Announcements" towards the end of the meeting. Requests currently being made during Study Session would be removed, and would require requests to be made during General Session only. In sum, the current agenda request procedures would remain unchanged, other than the transfer of the agenda section from Study Session to General Session.

Option 3 - No change to current City Council agenda request protocol.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

William Gallardo, City Manager
Prepared by: Melissa Davis, Management Analyst I