Anacortes city council members spent much of their Dec. 1 meeting working through a redline draft of Resolution 31-88, a proposed update to the council’s procedural rules intended to align meeting practice with state law and modern meeting needs.

Staff presenter Miss Swetnam guided the council through changes beginning with section 8, proposing that debate follow Robert’s Rules of Order and formalizing the clerk-treasurer’s practice of rotating the order of calling roll for votes. The draft also adjusts how fees and charges are established—moving some authority to a unified fee schedule rather than ordinance—and retains a two-reading requirement for regulatory, nonemergency ordinances while preserving council’s ability to waive the rule.

Public-comment rules drew extended discussion. The redline prohibits applause or cheering except during specified announcements, reiterates that general public comment is for members of the public to share information (and that council members should not engage in back-and-forth during that period), and bars the use of the podium computer by commenters for live presentations. Staff recommended allowing remote testimony via video but initially included a camera-on requirement; council discussed concerns about equity and access for callers without cameras and, by consensus, moved to strike the mandatory-camera provision while retaining a neutral-background requirement for those who appear on camera.

Council also reviewed a newly drafted "disruption" section (language adapted from Seattle) that defines disruptive behavior—threats, personal attacks, slurs, abusive language, prolonged overruns of allotted time, and other conduct that intentionally impedes orderly proceedings—and makes those behaviors grounds for chair intervention. Members emphasized care with First Amendment limits and asked staff to collate disruption and applause rules in one accessible section for chairs to use during meetings.

On committee governance (section 11.3), the draft limits consecutive committee service and seeks to ensure rotation and continuity; councilors favored language that would set a goal that membership “should not remain the same each term” and asked staff to produce hybrid language that protects institutional knowledge while avoiding complete static membership. New section 12 requires that council communications avoid Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) violations (for example, no “reply all” on group emails) and adds a records-retention reminder consistent with the Public Records Act.

Swetnam said staff will prepare an updated draft incorporating the council’s direction and return the procedures for adoption before the end of the year. No final adoption vote occurred on Dec. 1.

What’s next: staff will merge the edits discussed—particularly the public-comment, disruption, and committee-rotation language—into a revised draft and circulate it to the full council ahead of a vote expected before year end.