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Council suspends rules to add several items and adopts Dixit amendments; cooling amendment sent back to proposed agenda
Summary
Policy adviser Wright guided a new proposed/pending/final agenda flow; council repeatedly suspended rules to add items (traffic calming, PSAP radios, greenway, bonds and grants) and adopted Dixit amendments to public art and shared streets. Council moved a right‑to‑cooling amendment back to the proposed agenda for public testimony while retaining a $500 installation deduction and creating compliance paths and extensions.
Policy adviser Mister Wright briefed the council on a new agenda structure that separates items into proposed, pending and final buckets and previewed a number of items staff wanted added immediately.
Council repeatedly voted to suspend the rules and add items to pending or final agendas. Those additions included, by voice vote, OPR items on zoning and public‑safety technology (including PSAP radios), traffic‑calming quick builds, the ESO solutions gold package for emergency services, bond ordinances and the Pacific Avenue Greenway. Council comments framed most suspensions as timing needs related to a recent schedule break; one suspension was recorded with a 6‑to‑1 tally in discussion of the items added.
The council then considered and voted to adopt Dixon (Dixit) amendments to two ordinances: C36892 (1% for public art) and C36901 (shared streets). Staff explained how vote thresholds affect when an adopted amendment appears in the proposed/pending/final schedule; the council adopted the Dixit amendments on voice votes.
Council also moved a Tellus/Dixit amendment to ordinance C36877 (the "right to cooling") back to the proposed agenda so the public could testify before a final vote. Council member Dylan summarized substantive changes in the amendment: removal of explicit temperature thresholds from the ordinance, retention of a $500 allowable deduction for installing a cooling device, a requirement that dwelling units have at least one room with cooling equipment to meet adequate cooling, an extension of the compliance date for bedrooms, and a process for hardship extensions (for example, for historic buildings or properties with electrical constraints). Council discussed the change as a compromise born of stakeholder feedback and moved it to proposed so the public could respond.
Why it matters: The procedural actions change how items will travel through the council’s agenda and accelerate consideration of multiple contracts and capital items. The Dixit amendments and the cooling amendment could materially affect public‑art thresholds, street policies and rental‑housing obligations if later adopted in final readings.
What’s next: The added items will appear on pending and final agendas per the new scheduling buckets, and the right‑to‑cooling amendment will appear on the proposed agenda to allow public testimony before any final action.
