CC Minutes - 04/12/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Meisner moved, seconded by Ms. Nathanson, to approve pulled Consent Calendar item D, Resolution No. 4588, Adopting as its Ground Rules Eugene City Council Operating Agreements 1999. Referring to an e-mail he sent to the Mayor, City Councilors, and council staff on April 10, Mr. Kelly proposed the following amendments to Resolution No. 4588: a resolution to approve the proposed operating agreements as council ground rules for 1999. · Section 5 (page 4): Re-word the final sentence to indicate that the request to postpone an agenda item is honored unless a majority of councilors present make the contrary determination. Delete from the final sentence the words "the Mayor or..." Mr. Kelly moved, seconded by Mr. Rayor, adoption of the above proposed amendment. At the request of Ms. Nathanson, Mayor Torrey explained that the final sentence of Section 5 was intended to prevent a councilor from being able to keep an item off the agenda by simply not attending a meeting. He said the language in Section 5 would require a councilor to obtain, outside of meeting time, the support of a majority of council members before an item would be removed from the agenda. Mr. Meisner stated that he did not support the process described by Mayor Torrey. He stated that given his experience that councilors do not abuse the privilege of requesting that agenda items be postponed, he is uncomfortable adopting a system that presumes such requests are somehow wrong. Mr. Meisner said he does not want to adopt a problematic solution to a non-existent issue. Ms. Taylor said she would support the amendment because she sees no abuse of the request to postpone items. The motion passed unanimously, 6:0. · Section 7 (page 5): Propose either deleting the final sentence of the third paragraph from the bottom, or having the author explain the intent of this added sentence and discussing the matter as a council. Mr. Klein explained that the sentence originally stated that the council should not attempt to re-write ordinances. He said the intention of rewording the sentence to state that the council generally should not attempt to rewrite ordinances was to make clear to the public the Council's role with regard to rewriting ordinances. Mr. Meisner stated that the final sentence of paragraph 5 appears to negate the council's authority to revise and adopt ordinances at meetings by suggesting that the council must direct staff to bring back revised ordinances for approval. Mr. Klein said that was not the intention of the sentence; however, given Mr. Meisner's reading of it, he suggested deleting the sentence. Mr. Meisner moved, seconded by Mr. Kelly, to delete the final sentence in the third paragraph from the bottom of page 5, Section 7. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 12, 1999 Page 6 7:30 p.m.