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<br />Mr. Kelly thought City Manager Taylor's remarks were well-taken. There were groups that would game the <br />system or come to the erroneous conclusion that more voices saying the same thing was effective. He <br />thought there was value to a stated norm, such as a maximum of 60 minutes to avoid such situations and <br />give the council president some flexibility in offering the body a motion that it could accept or vote down. <br /> <br />Mr. Pape agreed that if the council needed to consult briefly about the agenda before a meeting, it should. <br />There was general concurrence. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor wanted the council to have sufficient time at meetings to do the job it .was tasked to do as well as <br />accommodate public forum speakers. He agreed that public education about how the system worked was <br />vital. <br /> <br />Ms. Rose suggested that staff could revise the sign-up sheet to make the process clearer to the public. <br /> <br />Responding to a question from Mr. Poling, Mr. Kelly reiterated his suggestion for one hour for the forum as <br />a canonical time and to give the president flexibility in making a motion. Ms. Taylor preferred that 90 <br />minutes be allocated to the public forum as a maximum, pointing out that sometimes few people spoke. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor thought that for the sake of agenda construction, the council should establish a maximum. He said <br />that staff would not know how to construct agendas with uncertainty about the time. <br /> <br />Ms. Shepard polled councilors on their preference for.a time limit, either 60 minutes or 90 minutes. Mr. <br />Kelly suggested that staff return with a recommendation that the council could vote up or down. <br /> <br />IV. Criteria for Canceling Council MeetingsIWork Sessions <br /> <br />Mr. Pape believed that the council should have canceled the March 10 meeting since the majo~ty of the <br />agenda had been deferred due to council absences and it contained only the Consent Calendar and Public <br />Forum. He characterized the meeting as a waste of time. <br /> <br />Mr.. Kelly said that because council agendas were so full, he did not understand why the council did not <br />always have a meeting at t~e usual time; for example, next Monday there was a Budget Committee meeting <br />that ended at 7:20 p.m. that could have been followed by a regular council meeting. The meeting could be <br />canceled if not needed. <br /> <br />There was brief discussion of why the March 10 ~eeting had been canceled. Mr. Pryor suggested that the <br />question at hand was more relevant for discussion. <br /> <br />City Manager Taylor indicated he did not cancel meetings or schedule additional meetings unless asked to do <br />so by the Mayor and City Council. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor suggested that there were only a few instances where a meeting should be canceled; for example, <br />if there was nothing to discuss. He suggested that in some cases, only the regular meeting might be needed. <br />The council did not need to meet in work session if there was no need, but regular meetings should occur if <br />only for the Public Forum and Consent Calendar. <br /> <br />MINUTES-Eugene City Council <br />Process Session <br /> <br />April 17,2006 <br /> <br />Page 7 <br />