01/21/1985 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e e - Mr. Rutan suggested the council accept public testimony and comments from the staff, ask questions of the staff and public, and then close the public hear- ing. The closing of the hearing would signal the start of the council dis- cussion when positions could be stated. Ms. Schue cautioned that the public could be lIusedll if additional testimony is requested to bolster a councilor's position. Councilors decided to retain the current format concerning questioning and discussion periods and discuss it again in six months. Councilors decided to start Wednesday meetings promptly at noon. Councilors discussed various ground rules that they have previously agreed to: 1) any councilor may have an item put on a council agenda; 2) anyone councilor can request an item be postponed to another meeting if he/she is unable to attend the meeting at which the item has been scheduled; 3) any two councilors can request an item be postponed to the following meeting; 4) any councilor may attend any meeting at which the council is represented, but only the official council representative, not the attending councilor, has the right to vote; 5) councilors should try to gather necessary information, have questions answered, etc., from the staff before a meeting; 6) when coun- cilors speak to each other during public meetings, last names are used during Monday evening meetings and first names are used during Wednesday noon meet- ings--Mr. Obie is, however, always referred to as lithe mayorll; 7) a councilor should only speak for him/herself, not for other councilors; 8) councilors should not state that they are representing the council, unless one of them has been asked by the council to be its representative on an issue; 9) coun- cilors should try not to personalize issues--the discussions should be issue- oriented; 10) councilors should not change City-wide policy direction during consideration of a particular instance, but councilors may vote against a specific issue; 11) during public meetings, councilors should not attempt to edit or rewrite prepared ordinances because of the potential impact on other issues--amendments to an ordinance may, however, be appropriate. There are some exceptions to these policies. The councilors discussed further the ways to get an item placed on an agen- da. It was noted that a councilor can call the City Manager directly and request that the item be placed; the request can be made during council com- ments at a Wednesday meeting; or one can contact a department directly. Although any councilor may place an item on a council agenda, it was agreed that it is best to first raise the issue under IICouncil Commentsll during a Wednesday meeting. Ms. Schue said the end result is usually better if a councilor who has a new idea for an ordinance or project discusses it with other councilors and gets the consensus of the council to proceed before much staff time is spent drafting an ordinance. The councilor can present infor- mation, a position paper, or schedule a report from a department or recom- mendations from a committee during IICouncil Commentsll on Wednesdays. All the councilors can then participate in the decision on whether to have staff spend time on the issue. Those councilors who agree that staff time can be spent on a particular item are not, however, bound to support the issue when it comes before the council for a vote. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 21, 1985 Page 2