TO: HONORABLE MAYOR FROM: Lee Wilcox
AND CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT: CITY COUNCIL GOVERNANCE: DATE: August 15, 2023
DEVELOPING NORMS AND
PROCEDURES
Approved Date
8/14/23
BACKGROUND
At the June 7, 2023 Rules and Open Government Committee meeting, Mayor Mahan and Councilmembers Foley and Cohen brought forward a memorandum recommending staff agendize a City Council Study Session for August or September for the purpose of giving the Council an opportunity to discuss shared norms and procedures that could enhance the work of the City Council. The memorandum cited a number of benefits that could accrue from having an intentional discussion about norms and procedures, including ensuring consistency and efficiency, promoting transparency and accountability, encouraging public participation, reducing conflict and misunderstanding, and enhancing professionalism. The Committee approved this memorandum.
On August 2, 2023, the Rules and Open Government Committee set a City Council Governance Study Session for August 24, 2023 and approved an agenda for the meeting as recommended by staff.
ANALYSIS
A common understanding of norms and procedures can be very useful to promoting effective and efficient working relationships. This Study Session will be an opportunity for the City Council to learn about the procedural rules that govern City Council meetings and to discuss shared norms that will help support the City Council’s work. Specifically, the Study Session will include the following topics:
• Local Government Context: A presentation from the Administration on the unique challenges faced by local government decision-makers.
• Rosenberg Rules of Order: A presentation from the City Attorney’s Office on the Rules of Order the govern City Council meetings.
STUDY SESSION: 8/24/2023
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 15, 2023
Subject: City Council Governance: Developing Norms and Procedures
• Council Motion Exercise: An exercise in making a motion that will provide practice with the Rules of Order and set the stage for the norms discussion.
• Council Norms Discussion: A discussion among the City Council of norms that are useful for promoting effective and efficient working relationships. This exercise will involve the City Council breaking up into small groups, agreeing on a set of norms that each group believes should guide the City Council, and then coming back together and reporting out.
• Council and Staff Communication and Relationship: A presentation from the Administration on norms that apply to the relationship between the City Council and staff.
The objective will be to build on the City Council’s work together over the past six months and continue to build a strong framework for the City Council’s work going forward.
LEE WILCOX
Assistant City Manager
For questions, please contact Peter Hamilton, Assistant to the City Manager, at [email protected] or (408) 582-3455.
Attachment: Norms Exercise Worksheet
Attachment: Norms Exercise Worksheet
Background:
Norms are informal standards that help us understand how to interact with others in a given social setting. Norms can vary across different contexts—the norms we use to interact with family members, friends and work colleagues can all be different. The purpose of this exercise is for the City Council to collectively identify a set of norms that can help promote productive working relationships among councilmembers and support the conduct of effective and efficient City Council meetings.
Exercise:
Councilmembers will be broken up into four small groups. Within your group, please develop a list of norms that you believe are important for the City Council. The below menu of norms is provided to help start the discussion, but these are only suggestions—some of them may not apply and there may be other important norms that are missing from this list. After each group has developed a list of norms, the full Council will reconvene and each group will share its list.
Menu of Norms:
• Treat others with respect
• Respect each member’s role as a
representative of their constituents
• Be honest
• Be patient
• Be compassionate
• Be collaborative where possible
• Try to maintain positive relationships
with colleagues
• Debate the issues, not motives
• Try to assume good intent
• Be a good listener
• Do not interrupt while others are
speaking
• Welcome public participation
• Be attentive during public comment
• Be mindful of equity considerations
• Be respectful of others’ time
• Be succinct
• Value good questions
• Be willing to question assumptions
• Try to maintain a positive tone
• Come to meetings prepared
• Try to ask clarifying questions of staff
offline before the meeting, time
permitting
• Confidentiality
Other Norm Ideas:
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