Redondo Beach mayor presents broad rewrite of council and commissions rules; council to review redlined draft next week

Mayor James Light and staff introduced a comprehensive rewrite of the city’s rules of conduct and decorum for council and commission meetings and proposed code changes to consolidate and update the municipal ordinances that govern boards and commissions.

Light said the existing rules dated to the 1970s and that the package combines updated meeting procedures (based on Rosenberg’s rules), new public-participation scripts for disruptive behavior, and an overarching ordinance to harmonize commission powers and duties. "Be quick, but don't hurry," Light quoted from coach John Wooden in urging steady, methodical progress.

The proposed changes would: consolidate duplicated language into a single "uniform" article for all commissions; clarify appointment and quorum rules; narrow or reassign some commission authorities; set clearer expectations for public comment and procedures to remove disruptive attendees; and update recommended meeting start times. The draft also includes sample scripts developed with the police chief and city attorney to warn and, if necessary, exclude disruptive individuals from chambers and to manage disruptive remote participants.

Council members discussed several thorny questions: whether to retain teleconference public participation (some members supported keeping remote participation to maintain access, while staff warned the Brown Act and teleconferencing rules can change); whether to require formal written disclosure of ex parte communications for public hearings (some council members worried that a heavy written-disclosure regime would chill informal questions and advantage well-funded interests); and what is an appropriate standard for commissioners' absences (the mayor suggested four absences in a rolling 12 months; several council members favored a stricter three-absence standard).

Council Member Behrend proposed that a council subcommittee work further on the draft; after discussion the council agreed to continue the matter to next week and asked Mayor Light to circulate a revised clean draft and to collect redlines. Council members Barrett and Light agreed to be the Brown-Act partners to coalesce edits and submit working redlines for the next meeting. Staff and the city attorney will review proposed changes for conflicts with state law before the next discussion.

No ordinances were adopted at the meeting. The council directed staff to return with updated drafts and a comment matrix showing how each council suggestion was addressed; staff said any ordinance changes would return for formal introduction and adoption only after that review.