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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 05/06/1997 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1997 7:00 PM, HERITAGE ROOM IV 8080 Mitchell Road COUNCH VIEyiBERS: Mayor Jean Harris, Sherry Butcher-Younghans, Ronald Case, Ross Thorfinnson, Jr. and Nancy Tyra-Lukens CITY COUNCIL STAFF: City Manager Carl J. Jullie, Assistant City Manager Chris Enger, Director of Parks, Recreation &Facilities Bob Lambert, Director of Public Works Gene Dietz, Director of Human Resources & Community Services Natalie Swaggert, Chief of Police Jim Clark and Council Recorder Jan Nelson I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER Mayor Harris called the meeting to order at 6:45 p.m. Councilmember Thorfinnson was absent. II. DISCUSSION ON CITY COUNCIL OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES Harris distributed a list of possible discussion items prepared by Councilmember Case with input from Councilmember Tyra-Lukens. She said there may be other items to add to the list. Case said most of the items he put on the list are things he felt this Council has not had an opportunity to decide. The Council then discussed the following items from the list. 1. Annual onen agenda pre-Council meeting workshops for C4 Council only to review/address/discuss on a regular basis issues like the ones being discussed this evening Case liked the idea of perhaps twice a year having a pre-Council meeting workshop to discuss items that would be submitted in advance. The number of items and the topics would determine the length of the meeting. We should also allow other subjects to be brought up spontaneously at the meeting. Swaggert asked if these would be Council only. Case said some items are just process issues between Councilmembers and would not require department staff input. It could be determined by the topics for the workshop, and it might be scheduled as optional for staff. CITY COUNCIVSTAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES May 6, 1997 Page 2 2. Open Forum: Do we want it televised? Case said he has talked with several mayors in the area who said they never televise open forum sessions, and he believes at some point we might get burned if we do continue to televise. Tyra-Lukens thought it is good to discuss this. She thought it would look weak if we decided not to televise any more once we have had an experience with a grandstander. Harris thought you take care of grandstanders by how you run the meeting. Tyra-Lukens said this leads into another issue. She thought a guide placed outside the door to explain how the Council meeting is run would be helpful for those who attend the meetings. Butcher-Younghans asked if she meant a sort of policy brochure. Tyra-Lukens thought we may want to set up some guidelines on the length of talk. Case thought it might be a good idea to have a line stating that the Council would not be directly answering the questions raised in Open Forum, but rather would usually refer the issue to Staff. Tyra-Lukens-thought some people expect us to have a dialogue with them, and they are frustrated when that doesn't occur. 7ullie asked if the Council thought it is really appropriate to have the Open Forum. Lambert asked what would be the problem with not having it. Harris thought it has given the appearance of our being open and respectful by giving individuals an opportunity to make a presentation. She thought it is a wonderful public relations tool. She has heard many plaudits of our Council, and she thought this is one way to maintain positive public relations. Case felt strongly about having it. There have been times when people have asked how they would go about bringing an issue to the Council, and he has suggested the Open Forum. He said they may not bring the issue to the Open Forum, but they then are aware of the possibility. He thought it would be helpful to have some guidelines on the use of the Open Forum. Tyra-Lukens thought we also should have something about the Public Hearing process. Enger said the Planning Commission has the agenda available on the table outside the Council Chamber along with a sign-up sheet for those who want to speak. This helps to eliminate the casual comments that come up. Tyra-Lukens thought the casual comments are sometimes valuable because it is usually someone who has a different perspective on the issue being discussed. Councilmembers and Staff then discussed the merits of having a sign-up procedure for those wishing to speak at the meeting. CITY COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES May 6, 1997 Page 3 Swaggert suggested Staff come back with a process for meeting guidelines, based on the discussion tonight. Tyra-Lukens said she would help work on the process. 3. Date for Council Workshops: Cluster vs every Tuesday Tyra-Lukens thought it might be useful to have a workshop scheduled for the same week as the Council meeting so we would then have a whole week without a meeting. Case suggested we keep the 1st and 3rd as workshops during the summer, and not schedule them on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays. Swaggert noted there is a Budget Workshop scheduled in July. Jullie said we also have the Joint Meeting with the Chamber in June. Harris thought we do have some holes in our schedule for the summer. 4. Pre-regular Meeting Council Workshops: Dinner issies, starting time, ending ibm Dietz asked if everyone is in favor of the pre-Council workshops, as there tend to be time constraints on this type of meeting. Harris said on previous Councils we had two kinds of workshops, and the pre-Council meeting workshops have served a different purpose than the others. They are more educational than problem solving and are designed to discuss things that can be addressed in 45 minutes or SO. Jullie noted the joint meetings have taken a lot of the workshop slots, and we appear to be moving towards addressing those issues in the regular meetings. This will give us more flexibility for scheduling other workshops. Case thought workshops serve multiple purposes. He tends to get stressed if he knows there is a group waiting for us while we have dinner. We used to have joint meetings with the Commissions, and everyone had a box lunch so that discussion could take place while we ate. This would also be a plus for the Commissioners and would be a better use of the time. Butcher-Younghans did not find the joint Council/Commission meetings very useful when she served on the Heritage Preservation Commission. She liked the idea of coming forward when there is an issue that needs to be discussed. She thought there are a lot of people who don't want to take extra time away from their families. Case thought the joint meetings give the commissions a chance to lay out what they are doing. He didn't know if that could be accomplished if there is just one issue or one person sent to represent the commission. He thought the joint meeting provided a valuable interaction time. Harris has heard responses that the joint meetings were not particularly useful. She thought we should wait for the study that Councilmember Thorfi.nnson is doing. CITY COUNCIUSTAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES May 6, 1997 Page 4 Not having joint commission meetings would free up a lot of time used by the pre- Council meetings. She suggested we keep this item open and return to it when Thorfmnson presents his report. Enger suggested having box lunches for some of the workshops where more time is needed. Harris thought there are some meetings where a two-hour workshop makes sense, and there are others that can be done in 45 minutes. She also thought we need to be flexible in the setting depending on the subject matter. 5. Planning Commission: Do we want it televised? Case thought they have a different accountability and have had a couple of instances with divisive meetings. A number of people have told him about how they saw the anger of the Council when it was really the Commission that was being televised. He asked if we are putting the commission in a position that is not fair to them and if we are accomplishing what we want by televising their meetings. Enger said the original intent was for the Council and Planning Commission to be televised to start, with other commissions added as we go along. He didn't think that is necessarily a good idea because he doesn't think it is helping the process. The commission needs to be working with the people in the room. They are not as formalized as the Council, and there are not as many support staff at their meetings. They also discuss issues that may go back to staff or may be left to be answered before the Council. Tyra-Lukens said she likes to watch the Planning Commission meetings on cable. Case said he has had discussions with the School Board regarding televising. They are very clear that they will never televise. He wasn't sure that we accomplish what we want by televising the meeting, and people can always come to the meeting. Harris didn't know that a lot is gained by televising. There is a lot of discomfort on the Planning Commission because they take a lot of heat without being able to make the ultimate decision. Enger said televising makes it more of a formal situation. He thought people do not see the Planning Commission as the beginning of the process, but rather think it is a done deal at that point. He said that is why we backed up and started the neighborhood meetings. Staff has started to float some issues with the Council that have come from the neighborhood meetings. He thought we might take a look at how the Planning and Parks Commission meetings might be made to look more like neighborhood meetings. CITY COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES May 6, 1997 Page 5 Butcher-Younghans asked if there are any reasons why we should televise. Harris said the problem is how do we stop. Swaggert said part of the justification of the expense for the Council chamber was that we would televise more meetings. We would need some solid rationale for discontinuing the televising. Case thought staff should take a look at this, and perhaps build some rationale for discontinuing the televising. 6. The 11:00 P.M. request to extend rule Case wasn't sure we are giving the right impression when we extend the meeting by 15 minute intervals after we hit 11:00 p.m. Harris said the quality of decision making late at night is not good. Lambert said it was brought up by Paul Redpath when he was on the Council. Paul said he didn't make good decisions after 11:00 p.m. Harris noted the 11:00 p.m. rule is an ordinance. 7ullie said it requires unanimous approval to extend the meeting. Case said he would like to discuss this more. IV. OTHER BUSINESS 1V. ADJOIJEDUMMM Mayor Harris adjourned the meeting at 7:27 p.m.