City Council Procedures Manual 2025 16
CHAPTER 6 – CONDUCT OF CITY COUNCIL, STAFF AND PUBLIC
A. CITY COUNCIL CONDUCT
1. General Co nduct
City Council Members shall:
o Treat each other and everyone with courtesy and refrain from inappropriate behavior and derogatory comments;
o Be fair, impartial, and unbiased when voting on quasi-judicial actions; o Use the electronic speaker sequencing system to info rm the Mayor of their wish to speak and shall be acknowledged by the Mayor before speaking; o Move to re quire the Mayor to enforce the ru les and the Mayor sh all do so upon an affirmative vote of a majority of the Members present; o Preserve order and d ecorum during the meeting;
o Not de lay or inte rrupt the proceedi ngs or the pea ce of the City Co uncil meetings, nor disturb any Member while speaking, by conversation or otherwise, nor disobey the orders of the City Council or the presiding officer, except as otherwise herein provided;
o Support the laws established by the City Council;
o Abide by the Ru le of Proce dure in co nducting the business of the City of Hesperia; and
o Refrain from the use of pe rsonal ce llular tele phones, pe rsonal com puters, and other personal electronic devices during public hearings unless used solely to view agenda packet contents or content or materials related to an agenda item.
2. Conduct with Members
City Council Members shall:
o Value each other’s time;
o Govern themselves as to the length of their comments; o Limit their comments to the subject matter, item, or motion being currently considered;
o Attempt to build consensus on an item though an opportunity for d ialogue; but when this is no t possible, the majority vote shall prevail, and the majority shall show respect for the opinion of the minority; o Have the right to dissent from, pro test, or comment upon any action of the City Council;
o Resp
ect each other’s opportunity to speak and, if necessary, agree to disagree;
o Avoid offensive negative comments and practice civility and decorum during discussions and debate; and
o Assist the Mayor’s exercise of duty to maintain order.
Attachment 2
City Council Procedures Manual 2025 17
3. Conduct with City Manager and Staff
Pursuant to Municipal Code section 2.08.080 titled “Internal Relations” which states:
A. Co
uncil—Manager Relations. The City Council and its members shall deal with the administrative services of the city only through the City Manager, except for the purpose of inquiry, and neither the city council nor any member thereof shall give orders or instructions to any subordinates of the City Manager. The City Manager shall take his/her orders and instructions from the city council only when sitting in a duly convened meeting of the city council and no individual Council Member shall give any orders or instructions to the City Manager.
Ad
ditionally, the City Council shall:
o Speak to the City Manager directly on issues and concerns; o Not direct staff to in itiate any action, change a course of action, or prepare any report that is significant in nature or initiate any project or study without the approval of a majority of the City Council; o Direct th e City Manage r to implemen t City Council’s po licy decisions through the administrative functions of the City;
o Treat staff professionally and refrain from publicly criticizing individual employees;
o Avoid i nvolvement in pe rsonnel issues except during City Co uncil Closed sessions regarding City C ouncil appointed staff such as City Manager an d City Attorn ey, in cluding hiring, firing, promo ting, d isciplining and othe r personnel matters;
o Discuss directly wi th the City Manage r privately, as a ppropriate, an y displeasure over work or behavior with a department or staff; o Request information or research on a given topic from the City Manager for response (responses will be copied to all Council Members); o Request answers to questions on City Council agenda items from the City Manager, City Attorney , City Cle rk, or department d irectors / div ision managers prior to the meeting whenever possible; and
o Present ci tizen complaints to the City Manager so the complaint and request for information can be disseminated to staff for appropriate action.
4. Con
duct with the Public
City Council Members shall:
o Make the public feel welcome;
o Be impartial, respectful and without prejudice toward the public; o Listen courteously and attentively to public comment; o Refrain from arguing back and forth with members of the public; o Represent official policies or positions of the City Council first; o Explicitly state when their opinions and positions do not represent the City Council wh e n representing their individual opinions and positions; and o Make no promises to the public on behalf of the Council/Commission/Committee. o Under no circumstances meet with or make direct statements to individuals that are currently in litigation, criminal process or in the administrative violation process with the City.
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5. Conduct with Other Agencies
City Council Members shall:
o Project a positive image of the City when dealing with other agencies; o Show tolerance and respe ct for other agen cies’ opinions and issues a nd, if necessary, agree to disagree;
o Represent o fficial po licies o r positions o f th e City Co uncil first wh en designated as delegates of a legislative body;
o Explicitly state when the ir opinions and positions do not represent the City Council when represen ting their individual opinions and po sitions, and sh all not all ow the int erfer
ence that they do; and
o Have the abilit y to advocate or discuss issues that have been adopted by the legislative bodies or are sta nding policies of the legislative body wi th other legislators, government officials or developers.
o Not vote for pay or benefits that would exceed that of City of Hesperia employees.
6. Conduct with Commissions and Committees
City Council Members shall:
o Treat all membe rs of c ommittees and c ommissions with a ppreciation an d respect; and
o Refrain from p articipation in commi ttee and c ommission m eetings for t he purpose of influencing the outcome of said meetings.
7. Conduct with the Media
City Council Members shall:
o Not discuss or go “off the record” wi th the media to discuss con fidential or privileged information pertaining to closed sessions, attorney-client privileged or attorney wo rk pro duct c ommunications i ncluding wit hout li mitation personnel, litigation, or real property negotiations; and o Provide non-confidential, non-privileged background inform ation whe n acceptable.
Press releases will be prepared by the P ublic Information Officer and routed to the City Manager for approval before release to the media.
Police and Fire responses and/or press releases regarding emergencies may be reported directly to the media by the designated department spokesperson.
8. Litigation and Confidential Information
City Council Members shall:
o Keep all written materials and verbal information provided to them on matters th at a re con fidential under state law in c omplete con fidence t o City Council Procedures Manual 2025 19
ensure that the City’s position is not compromised; and o Not disclose or mention any information in these mate rials to a nyone other than City Council Members, the City Attorney or City Manager. o Under no circumstances meet with or make direct statements to individuals that are currently in litigation, criminal process or in the administrative violation process with the City.
9. Ethi
cal Conduct
City Council Members shall:
o Receive at least two hours of training in ethics, conflicts of in terest, op en meetings laws, competi tive bi dding re quirements, bias prohibitions, etc., in accordance with Government Code section 53234 (AB1234) every two years; and
o Receive at least two hours of training in sexual harassment avoidance training in accordance with AB 8025/AB 1661 every two years; and o Conduct themselves in accordance with such training.
B. CITY STAF F
City Staff shall:
o Prepare well-written staff reports and provide accompanying documents on all age nda items in a ccordance with the age nda form at and prep aration schedule;
o Be available for general questions from City Council Members in accordance with the Brown Act prior to and during meetings;
o Respond to questions from the public during meetings when re quested to do so by City Council Members or City Manager;
o Refrain from arguing with the public or City Council Members; o Switch any elec tronic equipment such as pagers and ce llular telephones to silent or off m ode during Council meetings; and
o Copy or otherwise commun icate responses reg arding citizen comp laints t o the City Council.
Staff will r emain objective on issues and shou ld not be ad vocates for issues unless so directed by the legislative body.
As soon as possible, to the extent perm itted by the Bro wn A ct, the City Manager an d staff will inform the City Council of controversial issues having significant impacts to the City that are coming before the legislative body on short notice.
The City Manager will advise management staff of potentially political o r controversial issues coming before the legislative body and direct staff to be present and appropriately prepared.
Staff will not participate in political activities while on duty or on City property.
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C. PUB L IC
Members of the public:
o Attending City Council meetings shall observe the same ru les and decoru m applicable to the Members and staff as noted in this Chapter; o May attend mee tings at any teleconference locati ons in accordance with the Brown Act;
o Must approach the podium when reco gnized by the Mayor and speak on ly from the podium. Stamping of feet, whistles, yells or shouting, and / or similar demonstrations are unacceptable public behavior and will b e prohibited by the City Council;
o Wishing to provide documents to the Co uncil shall comply with Chapter 8 Sectio n B o f these Rules;
o Speakers wishin g to subm it ele ctronic media as p art o f the ir public comment, must submit it to the City Clerk’s Office via thumb drive or compact disk (CD) at least 24 hou rs prior to the Ci ty Co uncil M eeting in order to be screened for computer virus’ and offensive, or inappropriate content. The City Cle rk will have it available at the next City Council Meeting during the public c omment po rtion of th e meeting. The City is not r esponsible f or inaccurate information displayed as part of a public comment presentation; o Must switch an y electronic equipment such as pagers and cellular telephones to a silent or off mode during Council meetings; o Wishing to spe ak to the Co uncil shou ld complete, and tu rn in to the City Clerk p rior to the item being called, a spe aker’s slip indicating the age nda ite m or o ff-
agenda (public comment) item which they wish to address; and o May con tact the staff person with questions concerning Consent Calendar items p rior to the me eting to re duce the n eed fo r discussion of Consen t Calendar items.
Lobbyists must iden tify themsel ves and the ir client(s), business, or organiz ation the y represent before speaking to the Council.