Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mr. Pryor preferred to have more frequent and shorter meetings, but agreed that an item could be shifted to a regular meeting agenda if it did not cause that meeting to be too long. He said the third Monday public hearing could be considered optional. Ms. Bettman agreed with granting the City Manager and Mayor the authority to shift an item to a regular meeting agenda, depending on the topic and expected amount of public testimony. Topic: Use of laptops during City Council meetings Ms. Ortiz said she initially objected to the use of laptops and had heard from constituents that they thought councilors might be paying more attention to their computers than to the meeting discussion. She could now accept their use during meetings. Mr. Pryor agreed with Ms. Ortiz that there could be a perception that a laptop was distracting the user’s attention from the meeting and suggested that the council establish a protocol that laptops be used only as a resource for reviewing the agenda and related materials. He noted that the use of laptops promoted sustainability by eliminating a very large volume of paper. Ms. Bettman thought the council should formalize a policy and not rely on the honor system with respect to laptop use. She said the idea that a councilor could be receiving emails from constituents, lobbyists or others viewing the webcast was disturbing and that would constitute inappropriate contact during a council discussion. She said if the council did not want to formalize a policy to allow laptop use, then there should not be any Internet access during the meeting. Mr. Zelenka said he used his laptop to make meeting notes, organize materials by topic and eliminate paper. He said the electronic filing cabinet provided easy reference to information. He did not feel laptops should be used to communicate during a meeting, but Internet access was important to retrieving materials related to the meeting. Mr. Clark, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to extend the discussion by five min- utes. The motion passed unanimously. Mr. Clark agreed with Mr. Zelenka that a laptop was a very useful tool and there were times when Internet access was important. He would support a formal policy that laptops were to be used as a meeting resource and outside communication during a meeting should be prohibited. Ms. Taylor commented that councilors could communicate with each other during meetings. She did not want laptops used and preferred to see people’s faces instead of their computers. Ms. Bettman noted that all email to councilors was part of the public record, but she heard from a constituent who was told that councilors could delete emails and then they were no longer in the public record. Mr. Klein cautioned councilors that email should not be deleted unless it was addressed to the Mayor and council, in which case staff retained a copy. Email sent directly to an individual councilor in his or her official capacity was covered by State retention requirements and should not be deleted. He would provide a retention schedule. Topic: Use of council office space (guidelines, courtesies) MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 15, 2008 Page 10 Work Session