192094

Prior to the change in the form of government effective January 1, 2025, City Council met weekly from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, with recessed meetings from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday and/or Thursday as needed. This allowed City Council to meet for up to 9 hours per week or 36-45 hours maximum per month. The default schedule in Code Subsection 3.02.010.C.1, which took effect on January 1, 2025, holds meetings every other week - the first week of the month on the same schedule, and the third week at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday and 2:00 p.m. on Thursday. This schedule, unless meetings last longer than three hours, has a total of 15 hours of full Council meetings per month.  It also does not schedule Council meetings where there is a fifth Wednesday of the month. This reduction in meeting time, paired with more voices weighing in on Council decisions (including 12 Councilors where previously there were 5), has created a scarcity of meeting time relative to the needs of Council. 

Council has already recognized this need twice - first by adopting Ordinance 192023 to add a Council meeting and lengthen another, and second by adding Special Meetings on April 23, June 10, June 25, July 16, August 13, and August 14. Additionally, numerous work sessions and executive sessions, scheduled by the administration, have further reduced available meeting time, including an Executive Session on March 6, a Work Session on April 2, and an Executive Session on April 3. Finally, although no other meetings have been scheduled in a way that reduces evening meeting time, the evening Council meetings currently held on the third Wednesday of the month have had more items on the agenda than the public has time to testify on, which has both reduced their time (often to 90 seconds or 2 minutes from the default 3 minutes per testifier) and led to evening Council meetings extending late into the evening, which removes the benefit that evening Council meetings provide for public input and transparency. Adding more evening meeting time in the hours of 6:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. increases public input, but adding more evening meeting time after 9:00 p.m. does not measurably do so.

This legislation would make five changes.

The first change is that this ordinance would start a new schedule, where the first, third, and (where one exists) fifth Wednesday of the month would have a morning Council meeting, with a recessed meeting time that same afternoon as well as the following Thursday afternoon. The second and fourth Wednesday of the month would have an evening Council meeting, with a recessed meeting time the following Thursday afternoon. The changes to funding in the fiscal year beginning July 1 allows for increased capacity to accommodate this on the teams which support Council meetings (Council Operations, Council Clerk, Bureau of Technology Services, security contractors, and livestreaming contractor).

Second, this ordinance would define, as part of the schedule for meetings starting after 5:00 p.m., that the Council will, if still meeting at 9:00 p.m., proceed with the item currently under discussion as normal. Following the conclusion of that item, Council will proceed to any remaining emergency ordinances, any remaining nine-twelfths items, or adjourn, unless Council votes to suspend the rules and continue the meeting with other items.

Third, this ordinance would prevent Council work sessions scheduled by the Mayor, Administrator, or Auditor, as well as executive sessions, during the first three hours of a Council meeting schedule (9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. for morning meetings, and 6:00-9:00 p.m. for evening meetings), to avoid reduction in Council meeting hours. Should a Council meeting be canceled, following this cancelation the timeslot would be available for scheduling by the Mayor, Administrator, or Auditor.

This document is being proposed as conversations have begun about Council committees, which may include reducing the aggregate Council committee meeting hours each month. These conversations, though outside the scope of this ordinance, may result in a separate resolution that could mitigate, cancel out, or even exceed (with reductions in aggregate meeting hours for Council committees) the full Council meeting hours added by this ordinance.