Liberty Lake council narrows draft governance rules on legislative priorities, removes 'avoid controversial' language

At a special Liberty Lake City Council meeting on Sept. 30, council members discussed Chapter 17 of a proposed governance manual, a section titled "legislative priorities and taxes," and agreed to remove a draft criterion that would have told the council to "avoid controversial or adversarial topics." The draft remains under revision and the body postponed a final decision about what voting threshold should be required to adopt legislative priorities.

The change was discussed after Mark McEvoy, the city administrator, introduced the chapter and described the committee process that produced the draft. "This among all of the proposed chapters constitutes, maybe the most significant change from the current rules of procedure," McEvoy said as council prepared to deliberate chapter text. Council members debated whether adopting a legislative-priority statement should require a simple majority, a supermajority, or unanimous consent.

Council member Spencer said he opposed the draft language that…