City of Pasadena
City Council Retreat
Efficiencies and Protocols
June 20, 2025
1. Prior to City Council meetings:
a. Thoroughly review the agenda and staff reports prior to the meeting. b. Ask questions prior to the meeting, including over the weekend, and staff will respond prior to the meeting on Monday.
2. Consent Items
a. Ask questions ahead of time. Staff will respond by Monday or sooner. b. Instead of pulling an item off Consent, the preference is for the Councilmember to instead offer a statement on the record of either support or opposition, including questions or objections. c. If removing an item is needed, please confer with the City Manager first who will then determine if a staff person should be engaged for a reply. d. Alert the Mayor, City Clerk, City Manager and City Attorney ahead of the meeting if a Councilmember wants to pull an item.
e. Staff will include answers to typical questions more prominently in the agenda reports.
f. Items reviewed by committees should be placed on the consent portion of the agenda by default, unless there are expected questions or controversy.
g. In the rare instance when an item of significant importance has already been reviewed by a committee but is nonetheless placed on the regular agenda, the chair of the relevant committee should provide introductory remarks to summarize the committee’s deliberations on that item. h. Committee members shouldn't speak about an item that cleared their committee unless there are questions from other Councilmembers or a split recommendation from the Committee.
i. Explore alternative ways to address recurring issues instead of bringing them up multiple times.
3. Regular Agenda Items
a. The result of the discussion from the June 20 retreat is the following actions are supported by the Council and agreement that the Chair of the meeting, typically the Mayor, has the authority and support to enforce these guidelines.
a. Order: Presentation, Questions, Public Comment, Deliberations. i. Use questions for consensus building and/or motion.
ii. Call the question to suggest a vote. It is not necessary to get full consensus to move the meeting forward.
iii. Motion and second, then move into debate/discussion.
June 20th Retreat Summary
2 b. Chair (i.e. the Mayor) will ask how long a Councilmember needs for their remarks as a means to manage the flow of the meeting.
c. Allow the Councilmember whose district the issue affects to make the motion.
d. Allow the Councilmember who is the champion of the issue (e.g., chair, subject matter expert) to make the motion.
e. Consider a visible “time clock “showing speaking elapsed time for each Councilmember.
f. Consider showing, on the agenda, suggested time limits per item and meeting end times, for internal use only.
4. Council Committees
a. Reduce the quorum needed for a committee to two Councilmembers. b. Move committee start times to 5:00 PM, except for Finance. c. When possible, staff should bring forward more info items to committees for early feedback before forming staff recommendations.
5. Councilmember Self-Policing, Time & Attendance
a. Encourage all Councilmembers to be self-reflective before asking questions and during discussions.
b. Council members should be on time for all meetings as it impacts meeting end times.
c. Respect the time and perspectives each Councilmember brings to the group.
d. Council members should only talk about the matter at hand and not paraphrase points raised by other Councilmembers.
e. Limit Council response to public comment to:
i. Please have staff look into this.
ii. Can we get this issue reviewed by staff?
6. Additional Follow-up Items
a. Create a final list of guidelines for how the Council wants to work together (e.g., deference to the Council district, etiquette) for new Councilmembers. b. Further discussion is needed on ways to focus limited time on the most important items and let go of less important items.
c. Clerk/Attorney to review Councilmember Code of Conduct and potential refresh training.