Oxnard assistant city manager proposes changes to council committee bylaws

Eric Sonstegard, assistant city manager for Oxnard, presented a recommendation that the Oxnard City Council adopt a resolution amending the bylaws for the council’s committees at a Measure M video briefing ahead of the April 1, 2025 council meeting.

Sonstegard said the proposal would reorganize the council’s committee structure, reduce the number of committees from five to three, set new committee meeting times, add limited exceptions for items the council may consider without committee review, allow a committee member to be reappointed once a term ends, and switch the city’s rules of order from Rosenberg’s to Robert’s Rules of Order. "This change made it very difficult for us to hold 5 meaningful committee meetings with public input and discussion on a Tuesday evening," Sonstegard said, describing the effect of a voter-approved change to meeting start times.

The recommendation follows earlier steps: a November 2018 ordinance established five standing council committees, and a 2019 resolution adopted bylaws for those committees. Sonstegard noted that voters adopted Measure M in November 2020, which shifted the earliest permissible start time for legislative-body meetings to after 5 p.m.; he said that change made it difficult to schedule five substantive committee meetings.

Under the changes Sonstegard described, the new committee structure and schedule would be: - Finance and Governance Committee: 5:00–6:30 p.m., every other Tuesday. - Public Works and Transportation Committee: 6:45–8:15 p.m., immediately following Finance on those Tuesdays. - Combined Community Services / Public Safety / Housing & Economic Development Committee: 8:30–10:00 p.m. on those Tuesdays.

Sonstegard also said the draft bylaws would identify a small set of exceptions allowing the City Council to consider certain items without referral to committees; he specifically cited capital improvement projects listed in the council-approved Capital Improvement Program (CIP) book and made reference to "items related to routine and recurring" matters. He recommended updating the city’s rules of order from Rosenberg’s to Robert’s Rules "to maintain consistency throughout the city's legislative bodies," including regular City Council meetings.

"So in conclusion, the recommendation before you this evening is that the City Council adopt a resolution amending the bylaws for City Council committees," Sonstegard said. The provided transcript records the recommendation but does not include a formal motion, second, or a council vote on the resolution.

The item will appear on the April 1, 2025 City Council agenda for consideration; the transcript does not specify whether the council will make additional changes, the exact text of the proposed resolution, or the timing of any formal vote.