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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, January O5, 2009 Page 6 13. Business Items - Presentations/Discussions a. Discuss City Council Rules of Procedures Mayor Klausing sought any amendments to the City Council Rules and Proce- dures, and solicited any comments from Councilmembers. Councilmember Roe noted that under "Rule 3 Agenda," and the order of business, there had been recent meetings when General Ordinances were considered under the Public Hearing section of the agenda rather than under their designated sec- tion. Councilmember Roe further noted that, recently Public Hearings had been listed consecutively on the agenda, followed separately under Business Action for those items, and questioned rationale for that order and whether it may appear to be disjointed, rather than simply holding a Public Hearing for a specific item and then taking action immediately following that specific Public Hearing. City Manager Malinen provided his rationale for separating Public Hearings from City Council actions based on his past experience, and in experimenting with dif- ferentiating the Public Hearing and public comment from the City Council's ac- tion on a specific item, should further deliberation be desired by the City Council. Mayor Klausing opined that separating the Public Hearing from the action may create more confusion for the public who may be awaiting Council action, and expressed his preference for action, as indicated, immediately following that spe- cific Public Hearing. City Manager Malinen suggested that there may be some items that would indi- cate further opportunity for the City Council to deliberate immediately following public comment, but prior to taking action. Mayor Klausing agreed with the concept and recognized that such deliberation may be indicated, such as with the annual Truth In Taxation Hearing; however, opined that it seemed to make more sense in the majority of situations to take ac- tion immediately following a Public Hearing unless otherwise. indicated. Councilmember Pust opined that the most recent separation of Public Hearings and Actions seemed clumsy, and noted that the City Council had actually amended the agenda to take action immediately following the Public Hearing. It was City Council consensus that the order of business in the current Rules of Procedure remains in place, while recognizing that flexibility could be provided if so indicated by a specific item. Councilmember Roe noted that staff need not duplicate background information in both the Public Hearing and Action reports, in an effort to save paper and as part of the City's green initiative.