Leavenworth City Council and staff discussed edits to council policy language and a new city room-rental policy at their Jan. 14 meeting.

Andrea (staff) presented a draft of policy and rules changes that would require council members to provide a residential address for the public file, add a formal three-minute limit for public commenters when the mayor invokes it, and clarify how abstentions are treated in votes. Under the proposed wording an abstention would be recorded as a non-vote rather than treated as effectively a yes in tie situations; the draft retains recusal procedures where members with a direct conflict must leave the room and not participate.

Councilors also considered a written room-rental policy for City Hall. Staff said the policy is intended to remove inconsistent past practices, to give the city scheduling priority, and to protect audiovisual systems by prohibiting outside users from connecting to the city's server. The draft policy includes a fee schedule staff proposed to adjust for nonprofits and government entities (suggested $25 per rental, $50 for after-hours) and a separate private-event rate ($50–$100 per hour was discussed). Council directed staff to revise the draft language to reflect the discussion and return it for formal adoption.