HomeMy WebLinkAbout1C, Council Comments & Requests Discussion �.� EN HILLS
MEMORANDUM
DATE: April 19, 2010 Item LC
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Sue Iverson, Acting City Administrator
Finance Director/Treasurer
SUBJECT: Council Comments and Requests Discussion
Backiround
At a previous meeting, it was requested by Council to have a discussion on the placement
of Council Comments and Requests on the City Council Agenda. In conjunction with
that, I have included the Civil Discourse procedures that were agreed upon by City
Council at the 2006 Council Retreat.
Discussion
Staff is looking for direction from Council on where this item should be placed on the
agenda. Staff would also like to discuss with Council what they would like to see in the
Administrator's Update in the future. Increasingly, staff is getting additional requests for
information from individual Council members, which is increasing the workload of the
staff. While staff realizes that this information and requests are important, staff is unsure
just what information to provide because each Council member has different
expectations. Additionally, these individual requests can result in minutes to hours of
time to research and answer. At times, these requests have turned into actual projects.
Staff would like to discuss the expectations so that staff and the Council have the same
expectations.
City Council Meeting
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„--ARZEN HILLS
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CIVIL DISCOURSE
At the 2006 Council Retreat, the Council developed these ground rules for discussion:
• Respectful
• Agree to disagree
• No personal attacks
• Discussion is focused on business—not personal—stick to topic
• Showing emotions is okay, such as being passionate about a topic,but
F
"put downs”, extreme body language, and denigration is not allowed.
• Don't put down other's votes. You may say"I'm surprised" or"I'm
frustrated", but don't make negative comments after the vote is
finished.
• Techniques for cooling down angry Council members include saying
"When you're this angry I can't hear you" or asking for a recess.
• During work sessions and meeting discussions it's important to get a
sense of where people are coming from. Try not to surprise others with
your vote AND
• It's okay to change your mind when the time to vote arrives. But
please be clear why.
• No unilateral changes in decisions—act on decisions.
• The Mayor should recap meeting decisions at the end of the meeting,
and Michelle can clarify what she heard
• Stick to agenda
• Nobody speaks for whole Council
• Everybody can call an issue to the table, or can suggest it get tabled.
• No disrespectful body language
• No cheap shots
• No surprises
• Everybody monitors the rules
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