Duvall council discusses rewrite of procedures, ethics and staff–council roles

Duvall council members spent the bulk of the June 17 meeting discussing a working draft of revised council procedures and a possible separate code-of-conduct document, focusing on clarifying roles between elected officials and staff, managing information requests, and how to handle unruly meetings.

A council member who drafted the working document said the goal was to improve clarity around the council’s responsibilities and to create better guidance for interactions among council, the mayor and staff. He proposed moving the meeting segment commonly called “good of the order” to the end of the meeting and suggested a separate, signable code-of-conduct form used by some peer cities.

City Administrator Cynthia McNabb supported reorganizing the procedures and said staff had drafted sections clarifying the role of staff and the city attorney. McNabb noted the importance of directing legal questions through the mayor or city administrator when appropriate to manage costs and avoid duplicate requests. "There's a cost associated with engaging with city attorneys' time," McNabb said, and she offered to provide periodic billing summaries so the council could track attorney use.

Council members debated several specific topics: whether council members may directly question other council members during meetings, how to define and track information requests from council (one discussion item was whether a threshold such as a one- or two-hour staff time estimate should trigger formal review), and procedures for de-escalating or recessing meetings that become unproductive or unsafe. The draft adds a process for progressive warnings and for a formal recess and reconvening plan that could include relocating a meeting if necessary.

On public conduct, council members discussed distinct responses depending on whether disruptive behavior comes from members of the public or elected officials; the draft proposes different tools for each context and notes limits on permanently excluding elected officials from meetings. Staff and council agreed that the city administrator or mayor should lead efforts to de-escalate but that the council must also adhere to meeting decorum.

The draft also establishes a regular staff report and clarifies that the staff report is intended for information rather than to open substantive policy debate unless the council places an item on the agenda. Members asked staff to propose lightweight ways to log council information requests so responses are visible to all members without creating excessive administrative burden; staff said they would test low-cost options and return with proposals.

Councilmembers praised staff for reorganizing the procedures and asked for additional redlines and examples from other cities before returning the document for a future vote. No formal policy or ordinance was adopted at the June 17 meeting; council directed staff to continue work on the draft.