HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-03 Adopting Council Practices and Protocols Repealed by 2023-301
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RESOLUTION NO.2020-0 - 0 3
A RESOLUTION ADOPTING COUNCIL PRACTICES AND PROTOCOLS
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OREGON, RESOLVES AS
FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The City Council shall abide by the following Practices and Protocols unless they
are modified by a superseding resolution. Notwithstanding this resolution, a particular practice
or protocol may be suspended during deliberation of a matter upon majority approval of motion
to suspend the rules, except for a practice or protocol which is also set forth in the Ashland
Municipal Code and is not subject to a motion to suspend the rules. See AMC 2.04.010E.
A. AGENDAS
1. Consent Agenda
The City Administrator should place approval of any contract/procurement in excess of $100,000
on the regular business agenda, as opposed to inclusion on the Consent Agenda.
2. Minutes of Advisory Bodies
Minutes for all standing and ad hoc advisory bodies are to be available on the opening page of
the City website by clicking on the "City Commissions" tab or by clicking "Agendas and
Minutes" in the Quick Link section of the homepage and using the `view by" drop down box to
select the desired commission, committee, or board. Minutes are to be posted on the website
shortly after each meeting whether approved or in not -yet -approved draft. Electronic versions
of agendas for regular City Council meetings are to include an item providing hyperlinks to the
minutes for each standing board or commission.
3. Agenda Order
Councilors and the Mayor should adhere to the regular order of meeting agendas only after
approval by a majority of the Council.
4. Adding Agenda Items
a. During a meeting, a Councilor may move to add an item to the agenda for that meeting (or a
future meeting). In the normal order of business, a motion to add an item to an agenda
should be made at the time designated for "Other Business from Council Members." But the
Mayor could take up the motion to add the item earlier in the meeting when appropriate, in
order to recalibrate expectations for the meeting. If the motion to add an item to the current
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meeting's agenda receives a second, any debate, and majority approval, the item normally
would be placed in the "Other Business from Council Members" section of the agenda. The
Mayor, however, could decide to modify the order. See AMC 2.04.030C.
b. Outside of a meeting, a matter may be added to a future Council meeting agenda by two or
more Councilors upon making a timely written request to the City Administrator, unless the
item requires more than two hours of preparation by staff — in which case consent from a
majority of the Council at a Council meeting is required. See AMC 2.04.034B.
c. Any citizen may seek to get a matter by making a request to any Councilor or the Mayor or
City Administrator or to a City advisory board, commission, or committee or by making the
request as part of testimony during Public Forum.
5. Removing Agenda Items.
A Councilor may seek removal or postponement of a scheduled agenda item before or at the
outset of consideration of the item by making an "objection to consideration of the question."
After consideration of a matter has begun, a Councilor may "move to postpone the matter to a
certain time" or "move to postpone the matter indefinitely." These are parliamentary
mechanisms for deferring an agenda item which is believed to be not yet ripe for consideration.
See AMC 2.04.040C.4. b(3); 2.04.040C.4 j and k
6. Presentation Slides.
Staff should make every effort to complete presentation slides in time for inclusion in the
Council agenda packet. If, after agenda packets are mailed out, changes to presentation slides
become necessary to avoid misinformation, staff should highlight such changes early in
Council's consideration of the apposite agenda item.
B. STUDY SESSIONS
1. Miscellaneous Study Session Protocols
a. Study Sessions should be televised and held at Council Chambers.
b. Study Sessions should begin at 5:30 p.m. on the Mondays before Tuesday business meetings.
Unless a majority votes to extend an additional 30 minutes, Study Sessions should conclude
no later than 7:00 p.m.
c. The preferred time for any Executive Sessions is just before the start of regular business
meetings.
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d. The Look Ahead need not be presented as an agenda item at Study Sessions; instead, it
should be distributed in advance via email, allowing Councilmembers to ask about particular
planned future agenda items either before or at a Study Session.
e. Public Forum presentations at a Study Session shall be limited to topics on the agenda for
that Study Session. See AMC 2. 04.020C.2
f. At Study Sessions, suspension of the rules is not necessary for the chair to grant a
Councilmember's request for additional reasonable time for follow-up dialogue with and
exploratory questioning of presenters after presenters have used up their allotted time.
2. Decisions at Study Sessions
a. Study Sessions should be for providing Councilmembers background information and
providing staff a rough sense of Councilmembers' interests and concerns about impending
public issues.
b. AMC 2.04.020C 1 says, "Study sessions are for Council members to receive background
information and recommendations from staff or invitees with expertise on City business; to
ask questions, discuss options, express their individual views on matters that may be voted on
in subsequent regular or Special Meetings and to provide guidance to staff. The Council may
vote in Study Sessions on guidance to staff concerning matters to be presented to Council for
decision at subsequent meetings. By consensus, the Council also may direct staff to take
action on other matters that do not require Council decision by ordinance or resolution...."
c. Provisional deliberations and decisions, including motions -on directions to staff, are
allowable at Study Sessions, but final decisions about resolutions, ordinances and policies are
to be made at regular business meetings.
3. Summations
The Mayor or City Administrator should be responsible for providing a summary of action
taken/direction given at the end of each Study Session agenda item.
C. COMMENTS/ PRESENTATIONS/ CORRESPONDENCE FROM CITIZENS
1. Presenter Identification
Persons making presentations to Council should state (1) which city they reside in; or (2) which
county they reside in, if in an unincorporated area; or (3) the organizations for which they are
speaking or with which they are affiliated with respect to their presentations. Persons speaking
at Public Forum or during public testimony on agenda items should include current contact
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information on the "Speaker Request" forms they submit to reserve an opportunity to address the
Council.
2. Time Limits on Presentations
For agenda items at regular Council business meetings, the presiding officer is responsible for
setting time limits on public testimony on scheduled agenda items. AMC 2.04.050G.2 For Study
Sessions, public testimony is limited to 15 minutes unless a majority of Councilors votes to
revise or eliminate that time. AMC 2.04.050D.2.
3. Public Input on Agenda Items
a. At regular Council business meetings, after staffs initial presentation on agenda items and
Councilmembers' opportunity to ask staff clarifying questions, members of the public should
be invited to present their views. Next, Council may put any additional clarifying questions
to staff or invited "experts." Then Council should begin deliberation on the agenda item,
either in the form of general colloquy or in the form of specific motions and debate. During
this period of Council deliberation on an agenda item at a regular Council business meeting,
members of the staff or invited "experts" may present additional information to the Council
in response to a specific request from a Councilmember; but during such Council
deliberation, additional testimony from members of the public should be allowed only after a
successful motion to suspend the rules. Any such questions and responses to and from non-
Councilmembers allowed during Council deliberation should be only to provide clarification
of facts, and not to present argumentation or advocacy.
b. If a citizen signs up at a regular business meeting to testify on an item on the Consent
Agenda, Council should hear the testimony on the item before voting on it. Such testimony
should be heard at the outset of the Consent Agenda portion of the meeting. After the
testimony, a Councilor may or may not ask that the subject agenda item be pulled from the
Consent Agenda for separate Council consideration and voting.
4. Responses to Public Input
Follow-up questions or responses by Councilmembers should be allowed without suspension of
the rules only (1) in Study Sessions; and (2) when the speaker is a staff presenter, or a subject
matter expert invited by staff or Council to make a presentation. At regular business meetings,
follow-up questions or responses by Councilmembers should not be allowed with respect to
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testimony by members of the public during Public Forum or during testimony on agenda items
except in unusual circumstances and after suspension of the rules. However, Councilmembers or
City staff may be recognized by the presiding officer following testimony by members of the
public for purposes of correcting for the record misleading errors in a purported statement of fact '
or for the purpose of rebutting negative personal comments proscribed by AMC 2.04.040C.2.
5. Inquiries During Public Input.
Presentations during regular business meetings and Study Sessions should be directed to the
Council. Likewise, testimony by members of the public -- in Public Forum or -in agenda item
testimony -- should be directed to the Council, including any recommendations to the Council on
questions to ask of staff or subject matter experts. Members of the public should not pose
questions directly to presenters.
6. Renewed Public Input.
In the event of continuation of an ordinance, resolution or quasi-judicial land use determination
to a subsequent meeting, or when an ordinance is presented for Second Reading, members of the
general public who had an opportunity to testify on the agenda item in one meeting should only
be able to testify at a subsequent meeting if and to the extent the item presented for approval at
the subsequent meeting has been revised. Continued agenda items -- other than quasi-judicial
land use decisions, resolutions, or first or second readings of ordinances -- should not be subject
to this rule.
7. Responses to Written Public Input
a. If citizen correspondence is addressed to just one Councilmember and appears to seek a
response from just that individual Councilmember -- even though others may be copied on
the correspondence -- the addressee should decide how best to respond. Staff should respond
only upon request from the Councilmember and, if so, should send copies of the response to
all Councilmembers.
b. If citizen correspondence is addressed to two or more Councilmembers and appears to seek a
response from each Councilmember recipient, the City Administrator will (a) provide a
responsive reply directly to the citizen if the subject matter is within the scope of City
administration and will send copies of the reply to each Councilmember; or (b) notify the
citizen and the Councilmembers that the correspondence concerns policy matters and that
individual Councilmembers may or may not reply as appropriate and as time permits.
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c. If citizen correspondence seeking a response is addressed to the City Administrator or a
Department Director, the recipient should respond directly to the correspondent and provide
copies to the entire Council, whether all the Councilmembers received copies of the
correspondence;
d. If citizen correspondence is sent to the City website or is posted on social media so as to alert
the City Administrator to its presence and clearly seeks a response, the City Administrator
will see that the correspondent receives an appropriate response from City staff, with a copy
to the entire Council.
e. For citizen correspondence on Parks matters, the APRC Director or the Parks Commission
will have responsibility for deciding how best to respond and provide copies to City
Councilmembers and the City Administrator as appropriate.
8. Guidelines for Public Input
Staff should establish clear guidelines for those attending and making presentations at Council
Meetings and make such guidelines readily available and perhaps augment them with a brief
video presentation just prior to the start of Council meetings.
D. COUNCIL DELIBERATION RULES
1. Taking Turns
During Council regular business meetings, every Councilor should get a turn to speak about an
issue under consideration before any other Councilor gets a follow-up turn. AMC 2.04.040C.2.
During Study Sessions however, this rule need not be observed
2. Negative Personal Comments
Council members, as well as members of the public are to "make no ,negative personal remarks
or comments about the motives or personal traits of others." AMC 2.04.040C.2. "The Mayor and
council members should strive not to criticize any person in a public meeting or in public
electronic mail messages." AMC 2.04.080D. The rules against negative personal remarks or
comments about the motive or traits of others during meetings should be enforced by the
presiding officer. AMC 2.04.040C.3.
3. Suspending Rules.
Suspension of the rules can be achieved by a two-thirds affirmative vote on a motion to "suspend
the rules in order to...." No debate or amendment is allowed, but a second is required and the
Councilor making the motion can provide a brief justification. Robert's Rules of Order Newly
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Revised, I ph Edition (RONR), Section 25, pp. 260-62. AMC 2.04.0410E, allows only the
following nine rules in AMC 2.04 to be suspended without enacting an ordinance:
1. AMC 2.04.020.A (Regular Meeting days and times)
2. AMC 2.04.020. C(Study Session days, times, and content)
3. AMC ?.04. 040. B (Attendance by electronic communication)
4. AMC 2.04.040. C. 4 (Parliamentary procedure)
5. AMC 2. 04. 050. D.1 (Placement of Public Forum in agenda)
6. AMC 2.04.050. D. 4 (Rules on requests to speak at Public Forum)
7. AMC 2.04. 050. F.3 (Rules on requests to speak at Public Hearings)
8. AMC 2.04.050. G.1 (Opportunity for public comment on agenda items)
9. AMC 2.04.050..1.1 (Submittal of ordinances 14 days in advance of meeting)
a.) Should suspension of the rules always require a formal vote?
A Councilor can say, "I ask unanimous consent to suspend the rules to...."; the chair then asks if
anyone objects and, if so, proceeds to take a vote as if a formal motion had been made. Robert's
Rules of Order Newly Revised, 11 rh Edition (RONR), Section 25, pp 266-67.
E. COUNCILMEMBER REQUESTS TO STAFF FOR INFORMATION OR
ACTIONS.
1. Council Requests to Staff
a. Outside of a meeting, a Councilor seeking information from staff should channel the request
through the City Administrator to the pertinent Department Head. Email requests should be
sent directly to the pertinent Department Head with a copy to the City Administrator.
Requests for information should not be made directly to staff below Department Head level.
b. If staff is likely to have to take more than two hours to provide a meaningful response to a
request, the request must be approved by the Mayor or City Administrator or City Attorney,
or by a majority vote of the Council. AMC 2.04.080,4.
2. Staff Responses to Councilor Requests
a. If the request is for readily available information, the employee should promptly provide the
requested information and inform the employee's supervisor of the Councilor's request and
the information provided.
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b. If an employee receives a Councilor request for input that likely would require fewer than
two hours to produce, the employee should respond as follows:
i. Employee should provide the Councilor an estimate of the time required to produce the
response and seek an agreement on how soon the response can be provided.
ii. Employee should forward the requested information to his/her supervisor for transmittal
to the Department Head, who should be the one to transmit the information to the
requester and share the information with the City Administrator.
c. When an employee receives a Councilor request for input that likely would require more than
two hours to produce, the following steps should be taken:
i. Employee should provide to the requester an estimate of the time required over and above
the time staff would otherwise be spending on the underlying matter in any event.
ii. Employee should remind the requester that a management policy directs employees to
forward to the appropriate Department Head any Councilor request to which a
meaningful response is likely to take more than two hours of staff time.
iii. The Department Head should ask the Mayor, City Administrator, or City Attorney to
approve providing a response to the request or to add to an upcoming meeting agenda a
question as to Council direction on whether and to what extent staff time should be
devoted to responding to the request.
d. Staff should provide all the Councilmembers copies of any responses to a
Councilmember's inquiries or suggested guidance.
3. Pre -Meeting! Councilmember Communications with Staff.
If possible, after receiving agenda packets, Councilors with questions or concerns they would
like to have addressed at an upcoming meeting should so advise the relevant staff presenters or
the City Administrator in advance of the meeting.
SECTION 2. In preparing this resolution for publication and distribution, the City Recorder
shall not alter the sense, meaning, effect, or substance of the ordinance, but within such
limitations, may: (a) Change reference numbers to agree with renumbered chapters, sections or
other parts of the Ashland Municipal Code; (b) Delete references to repealed sections of the
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Code; (c) Change capitalization and spelling for the purpose of uniformity; and (d) Correct
manifest clerical, grammatical, or typographical errors.
SECTION 3.
This resolution is effective upon adoption.
ADOPTED by the City Council this Y-A day of P , 2020.
ATTEST:
Melissa IIuhtala, City Recorder
SIGNED and APPROVED this day of oi�- , 2020.
Reviewed as to form:
David H. Lohman, City Attorney
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Yomberg, Mayor
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