Finance committee amends bylaws language to allow receive-and-fileitems to bypass committee; forwards revision to council

The Oxnard City Finance & Governance Committee voted 3-0 on March 11 to recommend that the City Council adopt an amended set of bylaws for council committees. The proposed changes were presented in a redline draft by the City Attorney and include edits to article sequencing and exceptions for certain routine items.

During the meeting the City Attorney noted technical corrections in the draft bylaws, telling the committee, "in the draft of the proposed resolution, the bylaws exhibit, there is a couple misnumberings or letterings on article 2. It's out of sequence. It goes a, b, c, f, and g should be adjusted alphabetically." Committee members debated whether routine receive-and-file items should still appear to the committee or go directly to Council. Committee member Starr moved to add an exception so that items presented to be "received and filed" by Council would not need committee review. Starr argued this would speed processing for items where no committee action or recommendation is required.

A committee member replied that the committee review step can provide an additional public opportunity for comment, but the committee adopted the amendment. The amended motion, as approved, moves the revised bylaws (with the receive-and-file exception and other technical edits) to the City Council for adoption. The clerk recorded votes: Committee member Star yes; Committee member Rodriguez aye; Chair McArthur yes. The motion carried 3-0.

The City Attorney and staff will incorporate the redline edits and prepare the resolution and amended bylaw exhibit for Council consideration.