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Council chair proposes lowering suspension-of-rules threshold; law director to review charter implications
Summary
A council member proposed changing the number of members required to suspend council rules from a three-quarters calculation to a fixed five members; the law director was asked to check whether the change needs a charter amendment or can be done by council rules.
At the end of the June 17 meeting the council chair raised a procedural proposal to alter the number of members required to suspend council rules. The chair said the current three-quarters rule produces an unhelpful fractional result and proposed a change to require five members to suspend rules, citing scheduling and summer attendance conflicts.
Council asked the law director to check the charter language and advise whether the change is a council-rule modification or if a charter amendment and public vote would be required. Members discussed that the current interpretation effectively rounds up and that staff would verify whether an adjustment could be handled administratively or required a formal charter process.
No motion or vote was taken; the matter was entered for future review pending the law director's guidance.
