February 15, 2022
City Council
DATE: February 15, 2022
TO: Mayor Butt and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Nathaniel Bates, Councilmember
Subject:
Prioritization and Control of City Council Meeting Agenda Items and Discussion
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact related to this item; however, when time sensitive contracts are continued to future
agendas due to excessive discussions, there are
negative fiscal impacts.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
None
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
Many City Council agenda items have been continued to
future agendas due to excessive discussion or questions by the City Council.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a procedure to expedite City business by
establishing a time limit on City Council discussions and allow the mayor, city clerk, and city manager to prioritize the City Council agendas – Councilmember Nathaniel
Bates (510) 620-6743.
AGENDA
REPORT
February 15, 2022
DISCUSSION:
The City Council regularly conducts lengthy discussions and asks an excessive amount of questions during the City Council meetings. As a result, many time-sensitive items have been continued to future meetings, and in some cases, an item has been continued several times. Staff members, members of the public, and consultants routinely wait for hours, time and time again to hear, present, or participate in the discussion of an item, only to learn that the item will be continued to another meeting.
City Councilmembers are expected to read the agenda packet and contact staff prior to the meeting to ask detailed questions related to items. More times than not, the questions that are asked during the City Council meetings are a result of councilmembers not reading the agenda reports and supporting documentation. The City Council meetings could be more efficient if time limits were established.
The City Council should establish reasonable time limits for questions and comments from the City Council. The City Council once had a policy to limit the mayor and councilmembers to five minutes each for questions and comments on each item. The City Council should establish a similar rule.
The City Council has also started to routinely request to move items up on the agenda which also increases the probability of items related to the budget, contracts, projects, etc. to be continued to future meetings. The mayor, city clerk, and city manager should prioritize the City Council agendas. Prioritizing agendas includes the placement of items on the agenda relative to timeline constraints. Also, during the agenda setting meetings, the mayor, city clerk, and city manager should have the authority to place items on future meeting agendas, if the agenda is too long. Many times, there are too many items placed on one agenda and it is apparent the items closer to the end of the agenda will not be discussed.
It is my recommendation that the City Council establish a reasonable amount of time for comments, questions, and discussion on agenda items and allow the mayor, city clerk, and city manager to prioritize the City Council agendas.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
None