CITY COUNCIL: HOW WE WORK TOGETHER
AS A TEAM
Adopted January 26, 2023
Above all else, we are a leadership TEAM working together for the good of our community.
Each council member brings a unique set of values, perspectives, and strengths - and when these are collectively aimed toward the common purpose of strengthening our city, then we become a healthy leadership team that models to the rest of our community what it means to thrive.
As we work together as a city leadership team, let’s commit to one another, our city staff, and our community the following key behaviors:
Working Together
1. Focus on issues that transcend personal agendas. Set goals and make decisions that are in the best interest of our entire community.
2. Reserve comments for the discussion period that will take place before we vote.
Use the Chair as a valuable resource to facilitate an orderly and healthy conversation.
3. When it’s your turn to speak, you’re invited to articulate your decision and rationale clearly, candidly, and respectfully.
4. As your fellow Council members state their opinions, ideas, and positions, deeply listen to them. Resist the urge to interrupt them. Keep an open heart and mind.
5. Avoid unnecessarily disruptive or divisive comments.
6. Create an environment where your colleagues and staff feel physically and psychologically safe - as though they can express their ideas without fear of being ridiculed, shamed, or hurt.
7. Embrace the reality that change can be uncomfortable, but it’s also perfectly natural and healthy. Also, remember change is not an indictment of the past.
8. As a team, our votes do not need to be unanimous.
9. Once votes have been taken, let’s move on. Don’t let the voting outcome disrupt the focus and purpose of our team.
ATTACHMENT 4
Professionalism
1. Demonstrate genuine respect and friendliness to your Council colleagues. Do not personalize votes, issues, or disagreements. Be hard on the issue, not the person who raises it.
2. Seek to keep your interactions among Council members positive.
3. It’s OK to disagree - Just keep disagreements civil. Civility is remaining polite and courteous through mutual empathy, mutual respect, and mutual purpose.
4. Do not make comments outside meetings to the public or the press that could be seen as attacking, demeaning, or undermining to another Council colleague.
5. Avoid re-opening items that have already been voted on. This can create uncertainty for our community, the Council, and our staff.
6. Be keenly aware of those who might seek to divide our Council. We might be divided on issues, but we must always remain unified as a team.
7, Respect the diversity, lived experiences, and cultural backgrounds of our Council, staff and community.
Communication and Transparency
1. The City of Burbank is committed to the greatest transparency possible.
2. Both the law and good governance occasionally require information to be kept confidential. Do not share information that has been provided to you confidentially.
3. Make a good faith effort to share any relevant information and documents you receive from the public or others with the City Manager’s Office as soon as possible. This way information can be appropriately redistributed to the entire Council.
4. During the Council Comments section of the meeting, disclose any meetings and other communications with the public, work trips and attendance at conferences.
5. If participating in a Council subcommittee or serving as a liaison, report back to the full Council on a regular basis during the Council Comments section.
6. Strive to talk to each other before, during and after meetings, but make sure not to discuss matters in a way that creates serial deliberations or decisions in violation of California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act.