CITY COUNCIL
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SUBJECT: Council Meetings Policies and Protocols
ADOPTED: January 22, 2013; Resolution No. 2013 -7748
Supersedes and Replaces Policies A - 6 and A - 16
Purpose
The City of San Marcos recognizesthe need to establishguidelinesand proceduresfor the smooth, orderly, reasonable, effective and timely conductof municipal businessat both regularand special meetings of the City Council. This policy will also apply to the conduct of any other meetings where the City Council sits as the Board, Commission, Authority or Committee, and supersedes and replaces Policies Number A -6 and A -16 in their entirety.
Policy
It shall be the policy of the City of San Marcos to conduct municipal business at regular and special meetings pursuant to the following procedures.
Procedure
I. Notice
It is in the best interest of the entire community that adequate public notice be provided for any meeting of the City Council or any other meeting where the City Council sits as the Board, Commission, Authority or Committee.
Regular City Council meetings are held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. Council meetings traditionallystart at 6:00 pm and conclude by or before 10:30 pm. No business shall be transacted unless it is placed on the agenda in a timely fashion in accordance with the Ralph M.
Brown Act ( " Brown Act ") and the administrative procedures adopted by the City Clerk. Matters deemed by the City Council to be an emergencvor urgency item are exempted from the provisions relating to prior notice of an agenda item, provided the appropriate findings are made under Government Code section 54954. 2 as may be amended from time to time. The Council shall attempt to limit emergency or urgency items to those items that have a time constraint on them such that action needs to be taken prior to the next regularly scheduled meeting.
Special meetingsmay be held from time to time as deemed necessary by the City Council. When determined appropriate, special meetings may be called at any time by the Mayor or a majority of the Council by delivering personallyor by mail, written noticeto each member of the Counciland to each local newspaper of general circulation, radio or television station requesting notice in writing.
The notice must be delivered personally or by mail, at least twenty four (24) hours beforethe time of the meeting as specified in the notice. The notice shall specify the time and place of the special POLICY NO. 2013 - 06
meeting and identify the business to be transacted. Other than as identified in the notice no other business shall be considered at the special meeting.
Unlessspecificallydesignatedotherwiseby the City Council, meetingswill be held in the City Council Chambers at 1 Civic Center Drive within the City of San Marcos.
III. Conduct of Meetings
1. General
The Mayor or presiding officer of municipal business meetings has the authority to chair the meetings in accordance with the Brown Act and Roberts Rules of Order. In the event of any inconsistency or ambiguity between these sources, the Brown Act shall control. All Councilmembers as well as the City Manager and City Attorney are specificallydelegatedthe authorityto enforcethe policiesand protocolsestablishedfor the conduct of Council meetings.
City Council meetings are for the conduct of municipal business and as such are not to be used for the purpose of providing forums for political campaigning or rhetoric by Councilmembers or members of the public which is inconsistent with orderly business functions.
Reserved areas are designated within the Council chambers specifically for staff and media representatives. All other visitors and members of the public should be seated in the general public seating area or in the overflow room.
2. Order of Agenda
Agenda items will be considered in the order in which they appear on the agenda.
However, in particular circumstances, a member of the Council or staff may request that an agenda item be taken out of sequence due to the timeliness of the agenda item, to accommodate the public in terms of saving time and effort, or to address a unique circumstance.
3. Presentations by Members of the Public
a. Requests to Speak
For the convenience of the public, the City Clerk will provide request to speak forms and a place for depositing completed speaker requests forms in the rear area of the Council chambers. Members of the public are to place their requests to speak in the area designated by the City Clerk so as not to disrupt or distract from the activities of the City Council or staff in the conduct of municipal business.
Members of the public shall deposit their requests to speak forms in the area designated by the City Clerk prior to Council's initiation of the agenda item for which the request to speak has been made.
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Members of the public will be permitted to submit only one request to speak for each agenda item they wish to address. Requests to speak will be submitted to the City Council by the City Clerk in random order. Unless specifically approved by the City Council, individual requests with respect to the order of speaker presentations will not be honored.
b. Time Limitations for Public Speakers
1) Individual Speakers. Public speakers addressing the Council are provided a maximum of five ( 5) minutes when speaking as an individual. Their time will be monitored and the City Clerk will provide both a one ( 1) minute notice and when their speaking time has expired. The five ( 5) minute time limitation will be announced at the beginning of each hearing and will be strictly adhered to. 2) Group Speakers. A speaker qualified under the rules set forth in this section as representingmembers of a group may receive a maximum of fifteen (15) minutes to address the Council. Groups are encouraged to designate one ( 1) spokesperson to speak on behalf of the group. For those groups that do not designate a spokesperson, the Mayor may request that one be chosen.
To receive the maximum allotted fifteen ( 15) minutes, all group members present at the Council meeting must cede their individual speaking time in favor of the group spokesperson, unless an individual group member desires to speak on a non - related issue or an element of the agenda item that will not be addressed by the group.
Groups are designated as either a formal or informal organization. The following documentation and information, which shall be retained by the group, must be presented to the City Clerk for review and verification purposes at least one (1) business day prior to the Council meeting at which the group desires to speak.
The group is required to update all information annually; previous submissions will not suffice whether or not changes have been made to the applicable documents. a) Formal Organization:
i) current bylaws, including a statement of the organization' s purpose and requirements for membership; and
ii) a newly- adopted resolution designating those individuals authorized to speak on behalf of the organization.
b) Informal Organization:
i) organization' s name;
ii) organization' s position; and
iii) newly- adopted resolutiondesignatingthose individual(s) authorizedto speak on behalf of the organization.
The Mayor, at his /her discretion, may limit the presentation of redundant information by individual or group speakers.
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Upon conclusion of speaker presentations the Council, at its dioonaion, will determine whether Council questions and/or any Council and staff responses should be immediate Or made at G later time in a more comprehensive approach. Speakers will not be e|| Ovved to engage Council or staff in a debate and/ or question/ answer period while at the podium.
If the agenda item appears to be controversial or complex, the Council may establish additional rules and regulations regarding presentations which could induda, but are not limited to, allotted times for presentation by each group or each side of an issue.
POLICY NO, 201