Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mr. Clark averred that the differentiation of what should rise to the level of a phone call was whether it was a front page news story versus an event that might fall onto lesser pages of the newspaper. Mr. Chouinard said he did not know how to fix a situation in which the City could not speak on a personnel issue but the media found someone outside the City organization who was willing to speak on it. City Manager Taylor asked for further clarification. He said when someone was hurt or killed as a result of police action the council was notified. He noted that he received a report from Fire Chief Groves on structure fires and wondered if the council wished to have this information as well. Ms. Ortiz stressed that she was asking to be briefed in advance of items that would cause repercussions in the community. She said there was a threshold and she believed that staff knew what it was. She indicated that she would like to know whenever shots were fired. Ms. Bettman commented that she had “resigned [herself] to the fact [she] was not getting any information.” She felt any time a reporter called City Hall for comment the council should be made aware of it. She said one of the reasons the City Manager was the head of the organization was that he had discretionary judgment. She thought it would be better for the City Manager to err on the side of caution when it came to what to bring to the attention of the councilors. Ms. Taylor concurred. She echoed the statements of Ms. Bettman and Ms. Ortiz. Mr. Clark called it an issue of political judgment. He said if something was politically sensitive it was more likely to be politically controversial. Mayor Piercy did not want people to start “stirring” on why the elected officials were not responding; she wanted to try to get out in front of issues in order to provide a “calming comment” or words to convey that they knew what was happening and were working on it. City Manager Taylor stated that it took him approximately three hours to give everyone a call. Mayor Piercy responded that he should call her and she would call the council officers, Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Pryor, and they could initiate calls to the others. City Manager Taylor surmised that the council would prefer a call over an email in the face of a critical event. Ms. Taylor suggested that if the City Manager sent an email, that the email should require a response in order to confirm that councilors had read the email. Ms. Shepard ascertained that the councilors felt their concerns had been heard and that there would be work to improve that. Ms. Shepard called for a break at 7:53 p.m. The meeting reconvened after ten minutes. Mayor Piercy remarked that Ms. Taylor had suggested a return to two-hour work sessions on Wednesdays. Ms. Shepard called for thumbs up or thumbs down on the suggestion for a longer Wednesday work session. The council majority gave it thumbs down. MINUTES—City Council January 10, 2007 Page 7 Process Session