CITY OF PACIFICA
COUNCIL AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT
8/28/2023
1 SUBJECT:
Meeting Minutes Format for City Council, Planning Commission and Other City Committees / Commissions
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Move to adopt the Resolution entitled, “A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Pacifica Approving Creation of Administration Policy No. 84 Establishing Format of Action Minutes for City Council, Planning Commission and Other City Committees / Commissions” to transition from the preparation of Semi-Verbatim Minutes to Action Minutes.
STAFF CONTACT:
Sarah Coffey, City Clerk
650-738-7307
[email protected]
SUMMARY:
City staff is continuously seeking opportunities to improve effectiveness and efficiency of City operations and administration to better serve the community with the City’s limited staffing and financial resources. This practice of continuous improvement includes periodic review of policies, practices, and technology tools that may have not kept pace with local government best practices. One such outdated practice identified by the City Manager and City Clerk, and requested by Mayor Bigstyck at the April 24, 2023, City Council meeting to be reviewed and brought to Council for consideration, is the City’s current practice of semi-verbatim minutes of meetings. The following report provides information about industry best practices for minutes of meetings, comparisons to other cities in the region, the cost and staff resources expended on Pacifica’s current practice, information about video technology that makes semi-verbatim minutes redundant, and other details to support the City Manager’s recommendation to transition to Action Minutes.
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION:
California Government Code Sections 36814, 40801, 54953(c)(2) and 53232.3(d) provide various legal requirements relating to the record of proceedings during a public meeting, often referred to as the “minutes” of meetings. The Government Code does not specify in what form or style the minutes must be as long as the subject of the proceedings and the final actions are recorded.
Relevant Government Code Sections are as follows:
• Government Code 40801: The city clerk shall keep an accurate record of the proceeding of the legislative body and the board of equalization in books bearing appropriate titles and devoted exclusively to such purposes, respectively. The books shall have a comprehensive general index.
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• Government Code 36814: The council shall cause the clerk to keep a correct record of its proceedings. At the request of a member, the city clerk shall enter the ayes and noes in the journal.
• Government Code 54953(c)(2): The legislative body of a local agency shall publicly report any action taken and the vote or abstention on that action of each member present for the action.
• Government Code 53232.3(d): Members of a legislative body shall provide brief reports on meetings attended at the expense of the local agency at the next regular meeting of the legislative body.
Minutes can be prepared in several different formats; in general, there are four types of Minutes formats: Action, Summary, Semi-Verbatim or Verbatim.
Action:
Include actions of the City Council / Committee / Commission; requires very little, if any, narrative and only identifies the motion/second and vote in the record.
Summary:
Provide information as outlined in Action Minutes, but adds limited City Council and staff comments, as well as a list of the members of the public who commented on an issue.
Provides summary of City Council / Committee / Commission main points in discussion with emphasis on the body’s thought process in making the decision if and only if they are relevant to the decision. Not intended to reflect individual members’ thought process.
Semi-Verbatim:
Provide information as outlined in Action and Summary Minutes, and may include not only detail of each agenda item listed, but also full discussion.
Verbatim:
Provides information as outlined in Action but also all words spoken during meeting.
Draft minutes are reviewed and approved by the City Council before they are considered final.
Once approved, the minutes become the official record of what took place at the meeting.
Current Practice:
Presently, for City Council and Planning Commission meetings, the City of Pacifica uses SemiVerbatim Minutes providing a very detailed account of the meeting, major points, speaker comments (both members of the body and members of the public) and flow of discussion. The meeting minutes are lengthy and are cost and labor intensive to prepare. When Council reviews the draft minutes, corrections to details of the content are made on occasion, such as comments or opinions of individual members of the body or members of the public, that are not necessarily germane to the final decision and/or action of the Council. Extremely detailed minutes are not succinct and are therefore difficult to review as the record of the final decision and action by the body, costing the reader more time and possible ambiguity and misdirection in an attempt to ascertain the final decisions made.
The City of Pacifica does not currently have a policy to address the specific type of minutes to prepare for City Council, Planning Commission and other City Committees / Commissions.
Cost and Labor-Impact of Semi-Verbatim Minutes Style:
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The City of Pacifica employs a part-time meeting transcriptionist to review City Council and Planning Commission meeting audio/video recordings to produce a draft set of minutes in SemiVerbatim Minutes format. On average, the transcriptionist typically spends approximately 20 hours per meeting to prepare draft minutes. In Fiscal Year 2021-2022, the City spent over $10,000 for the transcriptionist to produce Semi-Verbatim Minutes for 31 City Council meetings and over $3,000 for 14 Planning Commission meetings. In addition to the transcriptionist time, the City Clerk and/or Deputy City Clerk spends an additional 3 - 4 hours reviewing the draft produced by the transcriptionist in conjunction with the audio/video recording of the meeting to correct any errors or inaccuracies, fill in any highlighted portions that the transcriptionist could not decipher from the audio recording, and make adjustments to grammar and phrasing. The City Attorney’s Office may also be asked to review the minutes from time to time to confirm accuracy for certain public hearings. Additional time is necessary if the Council subsequently requests edits or corrections to the draft minutes when provided for approval on a subsequent agenda. In addition to the staff time and cost spent on preparation of Semi-Verbatim Minutes that could be focused on other priorities, keeping Semi-Verbatim Minutes for meetings is contrary to industry best practices as recommended by the City Clerk’s Association of California (CCAC), which recommends utilizing more succinct Action Minutes except in certain circumstances. The CCAC’s recommendation is discussed further below.
Recommended Practice:
The CCAC recommends Action Minutes or Summary Minutes, where they are described as brief summary minutes. The CCAC has issued “Guidelines for Preparing Minutes for Governmental Agencies” (Attachment B). The CCAC prepared the guidelines as a tool for government agencies to prepare minutes that are efficient, succinct, cost-effective for staff to prepare and more appropriately aligned with the intent of the Government Code. The purpose of minutes shall be for the primary purpose of memorializing decisions made by the legislative body. The guidelines state that any component of the minutes that does not serve this primary purpose should be minimized or eliminated, including any comments made by individual body members and members of the public.
Action Minutes enhance clarity, as they focus on accurately and succinctly reflecting the final decisions of the legislative body. Transitioning from Semi-Verbatim to Action Minutes removes the ambiguity and misdirection that is unintentionally created when the flow of conversation is included in the written record, as the goal is to appropriately place emphasis on the collective legislative body’s decision-making. Action Minutes make it possible to easily review the minute document for what actions were taken and decisions made without these important points being lost in extensive content. They also avoid possible objections of what was or wasn’t included in the minutes or how comments were interpreted and discussions paraphrased or summarized.
Most cities now use Action Minutes as an established best-practice as recommended by the CCAC. The City of Pacifica’s current City Council minutes format is not in line with this guidance or current best-practices in the industry.
Cities that do not currently use Action Minutes are increasingly transitioning to Action Minutes formats. Some reasons for this transition include: (1) providing Semi-Verbatim Minutes requires significantly more City resourcesand (2) modern information technologies make meetings more accessible in real-time cable and internet broadcasts as well as digital copies of audio/video recordings of meetings.
Specifically, for the City of Pacifica, Pacific Coast Television broadcasts all regular meetings and many special meetings of the City Council and Planning Commission via cable and internet live-stream and posts video recordings of these meetings on the internet to YouTube for public Pacifica City Council 4
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reference. While the City is not the agency of record for these recordings and the recordings do not serve as the official record of the meetings as intended by the Government Code, they are easily and readily publicly accessible. Meetings from 2013 to present are available to access via YouTube and the public can watch the meeting for interest in specific comments and detailed discussions of items.
The Minutes of the meeting will serve as the official record of the meeting as intended by the Government Code and for the primary purpose of documenting the final actions and decisions taken by the legislative body.
Minutes of Other City Committees / Commissions:
The CCAC Guidelines are also applicable to City Committees and Commissions subject to the Brown Act. It is acknowledged that many City Committees / Commissions take few legislative actions and are primarily advisory in nature. At a maximum, Summary Minutes may include key points of final reports or determinations, and all comments shall be attributable to the entire body and not to individual members. Summary Minutes shall serve to clarify the final decisions made by the body and who is expected to execute the decisions, but shall not serve as a substitute for all action points or task lists.
Minutes Formats of Other Cities in San Mateo County:
Staff sampled City Council minutes from the 20 cities in San Mateo County and found that 12 cities regularly produced Action Minutes and 7 cities produced Summary Minutes. The average total pages in meeting minutes produced by other San Mateo County cities was around 5 pages. Where Summary Minutes were prepared for some meetings that included Public Hearings or Study Sessions, those meeting minutes typically did not exceed around 8 pages.
This is in contrast to the City of Pacifica’s Semi-Verbatim Minutes that average around 27 pages and often exceed 30 pages in length.
Attachments to this staff report provide samples of Minutes from other San Mateo County cities that illustrate Action Minutes with some providing Summary consistent with the policy being proposed for the City of Pacifica. The summary below provides a few additional observations and highlights to provide additional context related to the samples of Minutes.
Attachment D - Sample Minutes from City of Half Moon Bay (Action): Total length of minutes is 4 pages. The meeting convened at 7:00pm and adjourned at 11:25pm, for a total duration of 4 hours, 25 minutes and included Public Hearing for the introduction of a proposed Building Electrification Ordinance, included a lengthy discussion, followed by the Council action to continue the hearing to a future meeting.
Attachment E - Sample Minutes from Town of Portola Valley (Action): Total length of minutes is 3 pages. The meeting convened at 7:00pm and adjourned at 1:28am, for a total duration of 6 hours, 28 minutes and included a lengthy discussion on the Review of the Draft Housing Element with a significant number of members of the public for public comment, culminating in the Town Council providing direction to staff, as summarized in the Minutes with a majority consensus. The summarized direction is clear, concise and reflects the direction made by the body after having a full discussion and public comment period as opposed to including a lengthy discussion of individual thoughts and opinions that may or may not be germane to the final direction.
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Attachment F - Sample Minutes from City of San Mateo (Action with Summary): Total length of minutes is 6 pages. The meeting convened at 7:00pm and adjourned at 10:13pm, for a total duration of 3 hours, 13 minutes. This meeting included an agenda item for discussion of the General Plan Update - Land Use Map. Public comments were briefly summarized.
The minutes focus on the nature of questions and concerns raised by the body during discussion and information provided to address the topic pertinent to the discussion and ultimate action by the Council, as opposed to attributing specific questions and opinions to individual members in lengthy detail. The Action taken is clearly stated in the motion with a specific amendment and clearly provides the vote with one member in opposition. The portion of minutes for other agenda items focus in documenting the final action and vote.
Attachment G - Sample Minutes from City of Brisbane (Action with Summary): Total length of minutes is 4 pages. The Special meeting convened at 7:33pm and adjourned at 8:08pm, for a total duration of 35 minutes. The meeting focused on agenda items to place measures on the ballot for an upcoming election. The minutes focus on information provided in the discussion in response to questions and discussion raised by Council, amendments to the action proposed in the agenda, and the final action taken by Council with vote. While individual members are attributed to some statements and questions, the minutes focus on the portions of the discussion that are germane to the final action.
Given the recommendations from CCAC and the practice of other cities in San Mateo County, the City Manager is recommending that the City transition to utilizing more succinct Action Minutes for City Council and Planning Commission proceedings with the occasional use of Summary Minutes for some instances where public hearings are held or where no official actions are taken. For other Committees / Commissions, Summary Minutes are recommended.
The proposed Resolution and Administrative Policy No. 84 (Attachment / Exhibit A) establishes that the City of Pacifica will adopt the practice of preparing Action Minutes as the official format of meeting minutes and provides for criteria and guidance for the appropriate use of Summary Minutes. This proposed Administrative Policy No. 84 conforms to the CCAC Guidelines, industry best practice and the format of minutes currently used by most cities across San Mateo County and the State.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
Alternatives to the recommended action may include:
(1) Do not adopt the proposed Resolution / Policy and direct staff to maintain the current practice of preparing Semi-Verbatim Minutes, or
(2) Provide direction to staff clarifying the desired format of minutes to prepare for City Council, Planning Commission and City Committees / Commissions.
RELATION TO CITY COUNCIL GOALS AND WORK PLAN:
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Moving toward Action Minutes or Summary Minutes comports with the CCAC Best Practices / Guidelines for Preparing Minutes, cost consciousness, as well as the City Council Goal to “Enhance Organizational and Fiscal Stability”.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Transitioning from Semi-Verbatim to Action Minutes would greatly reduce the staff time and costs required to prepare minutes. Savings in excess of $10,000 annually may be realized by eliminating the need for part-time transcription services for the purpose of preparing draft SemiVerbatim Minutes. Transitioning to Action Minutes would allow the City to redistribute limited staff resources to other priorities.
ORIGINATED BY:
City Clerk
ATTACHMENT LIST:
Attachment A: Proposed Administrative Policy No. 84 - Minutes Format (PDF) Attachment B: City Clerks Association of California Guidelines for Preparing Minutes (PDF) Attachment C: Summary of Minutes Formats for SMC Cities (PDF) Attachment D: Sample Minutes from City of Half Moon Bay (PDF) Attachment E: Sample Minutes from Town of Portola Valley (PDF) Attachment F: Sample Minutes from City of San Mateo (PDF) Attachment G: Sample Minutes from City of Brisbane (PDF) Attachment H: Public Comments Received Regarding Meeting Minutes Format (PDF) Pacifica City Council 7
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RESOLUTION NO. _____
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PACIFICA APPROVING CREATION OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY NO. 84 ESTABLISHING FORMAT OF ACTION
MINUTES FOR CITY COUNCIL, PLANNING COMMISSION AND OTHER CITY
COMMITTEES / COMMISSIONS
WHEREAS, the City of Pacifica City Council, Planning Commission and several Committees / Commissions currently use Semi-Verbatim Minutes; and WHEREAS, California Government Code Sections 36814 and 40801 state that the City Clerk shall maintain a journal of proceedings or minutes of City Council meetings but does not specify the form or style of minutes; and
WHEREAS, the City Clerks Association of California has issued “Guidelines for Preparing Minutes for Governmental Agencies” as a tool for government agencies to prepare action style or brief summary style minutes that are efficient, succinct, cost-effective for staff to prepare and aligned with the intent of the Government Code for the purpose of memorializing decisions made by the legislative body; and
WHEREAS, the City Clerks Association of California advises that Action Minutes or brief Summary Minutes are appropriate styles and verbatim style minutes should not be used; and WHEREAS, Action Minutes succinctly show actions taken, identify individuals who participated in discussions, and record the final decisions / actions including the vote of the members of the body in a format aligned with the intent of the Government Code; and WHEREAS, establishing a policy of preparing Action Minutes for legislative body proceedings (City Council and Planning Commission) with the occasional use of Summary Minutes for some instances where public hearings are held or where no official actions are taken provides a more cost-effective form maintaining the official record of City Council, Planning Commission and City Committee / Commission proceedings.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Pacifica to authorize establishing Administrative Policy No. 84 “Minutes Format for City Council, Planning Commission, City Committee & Commission Meetings” attached hereto as Exhibit A and adopt the use of Action Minutes as the official format meeting minutes of the City of Pacifica. • • • • •
PASSED AND ADOPTED at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Pacifica, California, held on the 14th day of August, 2023, by the following vote:
AYES, Councilmembers:
NOES, Councilmembers:
ABSENT, Councilmembers:
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ABSTAIN, Councilmembers:
_________________________________
Tygarjas Twyrls Bigstyck, Mayor
ATTEST: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
______________________________ _________________________________ Sarah Coffey, City Clerk Michelle Kenyon, City Attorney