1 OFFICIAL MINUTES OF THE CULVER CITY
STANDING GOVERNANCE SUBCOMMITTEE
OF THE CITY COUNCIL
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE April 30, 2025
CULVER CITY STANDING GOVERNANCE 3:00 p.m.
SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE CITY COUNCIL
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA
Call to Order & Roll Call
Chair Fish called t he special meeting of the Standing
Governance Subcommittee of the City Council to order at 3:05 p.m. in the Patio Meeting Room at City Hall.
Present: Bubba Fish, Council Member
Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, Council Member
Staff Present: Jesse Mays, Assistant City Manager
Mike Bruckner, Assistant City Manager
Shelly Wolfberg, Assistant to the City
Manager
Christina Burrows, Deputy City Attorney
T’Ana Allen, Deputy City Clerk
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Pledge of Allegiance
Chair Fish led the Pledge of Allegiance.
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Public Comment – Items NOT On The Agenda
Chair Fish invited public comment.
Shelly Wolfberg, Assistant to the City Manager, indicated that no correspondence had been received.
Standing Governance Subcommittee
of the City Council
April 30, 2025
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Receipt of Correspondence
Shelly Wolfberg, Assistant to the City Manager, indicated that no correspondence had been received.
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Consent Calendar Items
Item C-1
Approval of Minutes of the Special Standing Governance
Subcommittee meeting held on April 2, 2025
MOVED BY COUNCIL MEMBER MCMORRIN, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER
FISH AND UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED, THAT THE STANDING GOVERNANCE
SUBCOMMITTEE APPROVE MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL STANDING
GOVERNANCE SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON APRIL 2, 2025.
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Order of the Agenda
No changes were made.
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Action Items
Item A-1
Report, Discussion, and Recommendation to City Council on Amendments to City Council Policy 3204 (Agendizing Items for Discussion) to Create a New Council Business Section on the City Council Agenda and Other Related Improvements for
Agendizing Items for Discussion
Michael Bruckner, Assistant City Manager, provided a summary of the material of record.
Discussion ensued between staff and Subcommittee Members regarding clarification on the different versions of the policy provided to Subcommittee Members; the ability of Council Members to make requests to place an item on an Standing Governance Subcommittee
of the City Council
April 30, 2025
3 upcoming agenda seven calendar days in advance; clarification that staff does not engage in work on the item; Council Member responsibility for formulating the language for the memo to be submitted to the City Manager for examination by the City Clerk and City Attorney; additional detail to provide an understanding of what the request is; online proclamation and certificate requests for members of the public; the auto - generated worksheet to be submitted to the City Clerk;
providing uniformity to the process ; limiting the need for clarifying questions and dialogue; concern with a proposed requirement that if the City Council does not provide
consensus, future requests would have to wait six months before coming back; repercussions that would address people bringing items back repeatedly; the Israel/Palestine issue; changing circumstances that would be a reason to bring items back; keeping Council Members from being constantly nagged about issues; concern with elongating meetings; similar policies in other cities to limit Council Members from
returning with repeat requests; and support for leaving the time limit to return with items out of the policy.
Additional discussion ensued between staff and Council
Members regarding efficiency; reasons to limit conversation; the Brown Act; items on the City Council agenda; limiting discussion to allow staff be able to brief the item and provide more information for Council discussion; best
practices/good governance; the current policy; ensuring that agreeing to hear an item does not mean Council Members agree with it; practical concerns; efforts to provide a neutral staff report; ensuring Council Members are not i n a
disadvantaged position; providing a counterpoint in the suggestion; practices in Santa Monica and West Hollywood for endorsement of bills; providing information to address the legislative calendar; resolutions or items that are so simple that the action could be taken the same night; existing policy and protocol for requests through the legislative platform; staff composition of advocacy letters; attaching the bill information in the analysis; responsibility to read through the analysis; the short timef rame to address requests to Council Members to sign on to amicus briefs; the amicus brief policy; federal lawsuits; instruction to Council Members to send requests for amicus briefs to staff; bills that are contrary to the policy statement that would need to come back for discussion; governance matter s vs. legal matter s; and non-substantive cleanup items to add clarification.
Standing Governance Subcommittee
of the City Council
April 30, 2025
4 Further discussion ensued between staff and Council Members regarding the addition of the seven calendar day period for submission; elimination of the six month limitation to bring back items that were voted down; the disclaimer on section 5; providing the memo online; placement under New Council
Business on the agenda; taking up submitted items at the beginning and new items at the end of the meeting ; verbal agenda requests in response to items that come up at the meeting; consensus items after the public comment period and presented in writing at the end of the meeting; dealing with both types of agendized items at the same time; opportunities to consolidate public comment; public participation;
transparency; allowing for more direct input; the fact that something important is always at the end of the meeting ; generic names used for the examples; item title as reflective of what is submitted on the memo; and the planned presentation on the item to the City Council.
MOVED BY COUNCIL MEMBER MCMORRIN, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER
FISH AND UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED, THAT THE STANDING GOVERNANCE SUBCOMMITTEE: PROVIDE A RECOMMENDATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL ON A RESOLUTION AMENDING CITY COUNCIL POLICY 3204 TO CREATE A NEW
COUNCIL BUSINESS SECTION ON THE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA AND OTHER RELATED IMPROVEMENTS.
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Item A-2
Consideration of a Recommendation to City Council to
Consolidate Public Comment at City Council Meetings
Council Member Fish invited public comment.
Shelly Wolfberg, Assistant to the City Manager, indicated that no requests to speak had been received.
Jesse Mayes, Assistant City Manager, provided a summary of the material of record.
Discussion ensued between staff and Subcommittee Members regarding policies of other cities; maximum speaking time per person, per meeting; providing three opportunities to speak:
under Consent, Action, and non-agendized items; the county as doing the most consolidation; the ability of people to email comments; other cities that do not combine agendized and non- Standing Governance Subcommittee
of the City Council
April 30, 2025
5 agendized items; lack of enforcement of the 20 minute speaking limit; discretion of the Mayor and City Council; the ability to end the meeting at 11:00 p.m.; saving time by allowing for public comment for non-agendized, Consent, and Action items; allowing comment for the New Business section; the School Board practice of taking comment all at one time; efficiency; allowing one chance for Public Comment for Items Not on the Agenda and one chance for items on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting; the ability to make comment for Public Hearing items; amount of public engagement in other jurisdictions; maximum amount of time allowed to receive public comment; and allowing people to speak on different sections on the agenda in a consolidated fashion.
Additional discussion ensued between staff and Subcommittee Members regarding potential public reaction to the proposed changes; allowing members of the public to make a case for the City Council to speak about something; allowing less opportunity for a longer period of time to comment;
streamlining the meeting process; difficulty of change; evaluating engagement post and prior the changes; encouraging people to email comments to get their comments into the record if they do not have enough time at the meeting; people who will appreciate not having to wait around all evening to make public comment; discretion of the Mayor to limit or extend the public comment; removal of the 20 minute limit to make public comment at the beginning of the meeting ; the ability of people to make comment at the end of the meeting; cities that allow a two minute period to make public comment with one additional minute for each additional item up to two additional minutes; concern with having to police the number of items the person is making public comment on; elimination of ceding time; and elimination of the continued comment at the end of the meeting.
Further discussion ensued between staff and Subcommittee Members regarding the intent to limit comment to three minutes to provide one opportunity to hear from everyone in an effort to streamline meetings and increase the participation period for the public; submission of comments in advance; not
limiting the time period to receive public comment; support for discretion for the per comment limit; concern with
discretion regarding the total amount of time public comment is allowed at the meeting; the inabili ty to cap the time period for public comment at the end of the meeting for Items Not on the Agenda; elimination of the public comment at the Standing Governance Subcommittee
of the City Council
April 30, 2025
6 end of the meeting; the twenty minute limit by the School District; Mayoral discretion; the ability of the City Council as a whole to override the Mayor; having a general
understanding of the length of public comment by the number of people signed up; retaining the ability of the public to make comment at the end if they sign up in advance and are pushed to the end; not allowing people to sign up for public comment at the end; if the time limit at the beginning of the meeting is exceeded, time at the end is created for those who signed up by the start of the first public comment period; the cut-off to sign up to make public comment; a suggestion that if the Mayor has to limit public comment, those people who were not able to be heard will be heard at the end of the meeting; the current and continuing inability to sign up to make comment once an item has started; not listing a time limit, but allowing the Mayor or the majority the discretion to limit the total amount of time and move those speakers who have signed up before the public comment period begins to the end of the agenda; adding the item to the agenda under Order of the Agenda; allowing each comment to be up to three minutes in length at the discretion of the Mayor, but not allowing time to be ceded for Public Comment Items NOT on the Agenda; elimination of the current practice to allow ceding of time for items on the agenda; the feeling that three minutes is enough; language indicating the authority of the presiding officer to set time limits; Robert’s Rules; and the ability of the City Council to override the Mayor.
Discussion ensued between staff and Subcommittee Members regarding timing to get the item on an agenda; allowing people a chance to be heard earlier in the meeting; the mutually beneficial change proposed; agreement to recommend that the City Council consolidate public comment to include Items Not on the Agenda, Consent Items, Action Items and New Business Items into one section at the beginning of the meeting and to no longer allow for ceding of time, limit the time to speak up to three minutes for each commenter at the discretion of the Mayor, eliminate the section at the end of the meeting for additional public comment, and not list a maximum overall time limit for public comment; the feeling that language indicating the discretion of the Mayor to limit the time period is not necessary as it already exists; Recognition Items; Closed Session Items; concern with negative comment for someone being recognized; people upset with not being allowed to make comment on a Recognition Item; Council
discretion to not sign a recognition; having people speak Standing Governance Subcommittee
of the City Council
April 30, 2025
7 before the Recognition Item; keeping comment for Recognition Items as is; and making it clear that people would not be prevented from speaking.
MOVED BY COUNCIL MEMBER MCMORRIN, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER
FISH AND UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED, THAT THE STANDING GOVERNANCE SUBCOMMITTEE: RECOMMEND THAT CITY COUNCIL CONSOLIDATE PUBLIC COMMENT AT CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS AS DISCUSSED.
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Public Comment - Items NOT on the Agenda (Continued)
No requests to speak were received.
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Items from Members/Staff
Member Fish received agreement to agendize a discussion of the Mayoral appointment ceremony and the induction of new Council Members.
Discussion ensued between staff and Subcommittee Members regarding the practice of West Hollywood; allowing for more efficient end of year meetings; previously agendized items; election transparency items; and date of the next meeting.
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Standing Governance Subcommittee
of the City Council
April 30, 2025
8 Adjournment
There being no further business, at 4:39 p.m., the Standing Governance Subcommittee of the City Council adjourned.
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___________________________________________________________ Shelly Wolfberg
SECRETARY of the Culver City Standing Governance
Subcommittee of the City Council, Culver City, California
APPROVED
___________________________________________________________ Bubba Fish
COUNCIL MEMBER, Standing Governance Subcommittee of the City Council, Culver City, California