City Council Will Stick With Current Meeting Procedures

A suggestion by Pinole City Councilman Phil Green that the council consider adding a third monthly meeting to its schedule on an as-needed basis didn't generate much interest from his peers.

The council concluded at its Tuesday meeting  that there already are procedures in place to allow for special meetings if agendas become overloaded or if the need arises. After a brief discussion, the idea got dropped.

Green last month, noting that lighter agendas might help avoid lengthy meetings that sometimes fade into early morning hours. He expressed concern that council members become tired and ineffective as meetings dragged on.

The council had only a brief discussion about the item on Tuesday, as Green conceded that the council already can add extra meetings or carry over unfinished business to a future date when meetings go too long.

The council also determined that the process for placing items on council agendas should be determined by the body as a whole, rather than allowing individual council members to agendize an item without council consent. Councilman Roy Swearingen had raised the issue to clarify the procedure. His concern was that staff and council times is subject to waste if items that don't have majority council support to be discussed are placed on agendas.

"I think the council should weigh in on these things rather than randomly running around and having things put on the agenda they should be brought up as we do now at the end of the meeting under 'future agenda items' and allow the council as a whole to give a consensus," Swearingen said.

Typically, the sitting mayor and city staff compose council agendas. Mayor Pete Murray said collective decisions by the council would ensure fairness, as opposed to one person controlling composition of agendas.

"If you had a mayor that was hostile to somebody on the council and could just squash any kind of request by a council member, this kind of process would allow that," Murray said.

Murray also said he will try to speed up meetings by taking all questions from audience members on a given item in one chunk, rather than having questions and answers bouncing repeatedly among the public, council members and city staff.

How do you think the Pinole City Council could speed up meetings without compromising transparency and public input?