CC Minutes - 01/10/07 Process Session

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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. 3. Parliamentary Issues Ms. Shepard asked what issues the councilors wished to address. Ms. Taylor commented that on a couple of occasions she had sent an intended motion out in advance and another councilor had sent a similar motion. She felt that she had then not been allowed to make her motion. She said the most recent instance of this had to do with the transportation maintenance funding. Mayor Piercy remarked that she was unaware that a motion sent in advance would be considered first. Ms. Bettman observed that it was a courtesy to the other councilors to send a motion in advance, but she did not know if there had been a discussion of what chronological order the motions would be presented in. Ms. Solomon agreed that councilors send motions in advance as a courtesy, but she did not believe that was a guarantee that a motion would be presented or would be presented in the order it had been submitted. She thought that after discussion if there were four motions that could be potentially placed on the table and after the discussion it became clear that the majority felt one was the right motion over the other three, then it was somewhat of a waste of time to consider three motions that lacked support just because of the order in which they were submitted. Ms. Bettman noted that a councilor had the right to have a motion be heard. Ms. Taylor asserted that according to Robert’s Rules, one could make an amendment to an amendment. Mr. Clark observed that it was sometimes challenging for the Mayor to track the queue, especially when a motion was made and then an amendment was made. Mayor Piercy agreed that when there was a queue to speak to a motion and an amendment was made, it was sometimes difficult to discern who was going to speak to what. MINUTES—City Council January 10, 2007 Page 8 Process Session