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Wausau rules committee weighs changes to Rule 5 order of business; minutes approved
Summary
At a May 2025 meeting, the Wausau Rules Review Committee discussed proposed edits to Rule 5 (order of business) including removal of several line items and how mayoral communications and proclamations are handled. The committee approved previous meeting minutes and agreed to return a reworded draft at a future meeting for further review.
The Wausau Rules Review Committee met in May 2025 to consider revisions to Rule 5 (Order of Business) and approved minutes from several prior meetings by voice vote.
Members discussed striking or revising items in the proposed Rule 5 draft, including the line for "communications or recommendations from the mayor," the "reports of city officers" line, and the item for "unfinished business from previous meetings." Committee members said some lines have not been routinely used and that the draft seeks to align the order of business with current practice.
Alder Tierney recited a provision she said informs the discussion, quoting Wis. Stat. § 68.09(8)(b): "the mayor shall, from time to time, give the council such information and recommend such measures as the mayor may deem advantageous to the city." Tierney said she believed the mayor should be allowed to make comments and recommendations but that if the committee requires specificity for mayoral comments it should consider consistent specificity for other agenda items as well.
City staff and the city attorney framed the change as an alteration of the order of business, not a change to what must be on meeting agendas. The city attorney described Rule 5 as the sequence in which business is taken up and said agenda wording (what is listed as an item) must still comply with state open-meetings law.
Committee members discussed adding a more specific line for proclamations so the public and council know when a proclamation will be presented and whether a guest will speak to it. The committee agreed to "wordsmith" the draft language and return a revised version at a subsequent Rules Review Committee meeting; the draft will later be reviewed by the committee of the whole before final council action as required by the resolution that created the subcommittee.
The committee opened the meeting by approving minutes from earlier meetings. Alder Tierney moved approval; Martins seconded. The motion passed on a voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript.
