Council directs staff to prepare redline of rules-of-procedure changes; public-consent pull rule deferred

Council considered a set of proposed amendments to the council procedures manual submitted by the mayor and directed staff to prepare a redlined draft for formal council action at a future meeting.

The mayor presented detailed proposed edits that covered a range of topics including agenda publication and descriptions, council access to information, written communications, future-agenda requests, council reports, commission removal procedures, Brown Act and Rosenberg’s Rules training, closed-session material access, and rules for combining public-comment time. The presenter asked that staff consolidate the proposals into a formal redline for council review and final action.

Vice Mayor Katie Moore and other council members discussed particular items. Moore and other members expressed concern that one proposed change — allowing any member of the public to pull items from the consent calendar (proposed item L14) — could have negative impacts on meeting efficiency; council agreed to defer that single item and proceed with the remaining revisions. Council also directed staff to ensure that information memos and staff reports show prior meeting dates and important maps where applicable, and to clarify processes for information requests that would impose significant workloads on staff.

Council approved the mayor’s packet of proposed changes except for L14 (consent-pull by members of the public), which will be reconsidered later. Staff was directed to prepare a redlined version of the procedures manual and return it to council for formal adoption; the city attorney will prepare the formal draft.