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Legislative Task Force Minutes 2005 11-08-05 Page 1 of 3 LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE Tuesday, November 8, 2005 6:00 PM City Conference Room City Staff Present: Chairman Alderwoman Burd Vice Chairman Alderwoman Ohare Alderman Besco City Staff Not Present: Alderman Leslie The meeting was called to order by Chairman Alderwoman Burd at 6:02 pm. 1. Minutes for Approval/Correction: Due to this being the first meeting, there are no minutes needing approval. 2. Discuss Goals and Objectives of Committee: A list of solutions to process issues was provided for the committees by Dr. Gabras earlier. The first step was to create two task forces, which were previously completed, one being this Legislative Task Force and the other being an Administrative Task Force. Alderwoman Burd moved on to discuss items 2 & 4 on the list being to create a governance ordinance and redesign the current Committee system and process. She felt that the later should state to review instead of redesign the current Committee system until they see a need to redesign the Committee system. The rest of the Task Force agreed with this idea. Alderwoman Burd directed the Committee to move on to looking over the rest of the items under these two priorities to see if there were other ideas presented here that should be dropped out or added to. It was agreed that item 2a should stay on as an item to work on. It was decided that item 2b should be placed under item 4 with the reviewing of the current Committee system. Item 2c was found to need more clarification as to what this is regarding. Item 2c simply stated the meeting process; the task force will look into what was meant by this. It was later discussed that they could put into effect Roberts Rules of Order here. Page 2 of 3 Item 2d was taken into more discussion. Alderwoman Burd felt this may have to with how the Mayor interacts with the Council members during meetings, or the way the meetings are set up or where the Citizens input is. She felt this could be where they discussed previously how the Mayor is involved in all of the Committee meetings. Alderman Besco stated that the Mayor does like to be informed and he felt that an easier process could be for the Chairman of the Committees would be to provide an outline as to what is or has happened at the meetings, which would eliminate a lot of pressure on the Mayor to attend. Alderwoman Ohare felt that the Mayor likes to have input in all areas from what is on the agenda, so he does show up. She stated that an outline isn't really going to settle this. Alderman Besco stated that it wouldn't be asking him not to come,just filling him in more on what is being discussed. Alderwoman Burd went on to state that attending wasn't the issue; it is the Mayor dominating the meeting. She feels that if Roberts Rules of Order is followed then no one speaks before everyone has a chance to speak their thoughts, which would probably solve any issues. Alderwoman Ohare added that this could be applied to the roles of Council Members as well. Alderman Besco added that whoever is Chairman of the meeting should be in control of the meeting. Point of Order should be used to remind others from going off on tangents of some sort. Alderwoman Ohare stated that when the Mayor debates every person on one item which defeats the point of having his own turn stating his beliefs. They all agreed Roberts Rules of Order will definitely need to be implemented. The Committee moved on to discuss the Mayor's role in the oversight of the City Administration for day to day involvement. They discussed the fact that he should be informed on the issues, yet the day to day operation was felt not to need his constant attention. Alderwoman Burd stated that the City Council is the boss and the Mayor is the one to implement the changes found necessary, not vice versa. The Mayor's daily input should be to implement what the Council finds needs to be done on a day to day operation. Alderman Besco stated here that he does not like the fact that the Department Heads were informed that they should not be speaking directly to the Council Members. This here is breaking down communication that is needed for the Council Members to improve the City for the public. Alderwoman Burd and Ohare agreed that the Administrator needs to push communication among all and should be a priority in their job. The Council Members should not have to file a Freedom of Information form for public information. This is why the Council set up an Administrative assistant to find this information for the Council members, but when that person was pushed not to speak openly, that defeated the entire purpose of bringing this employee in. They continued this discussion agreeing that Checks and Balances need to be in place to make sure policies are followed. For the next meeting they want everyone here Page 3 of 3 to put together ideas for a generalization of aspects on this subject. Everyone agrees that everyone needs to disagree positively and let majority rules. The committee will look at State statutes before the next meeting to see how those come into play with these issues. The task force ended the conversation stating they will bring these state statutes to the next meeting on how the Mayor and Council members should be handling these Committees. They will also put together lists of ideas on governance ordinance with the reminder in there of Roberts Rules of Order and finding out how those apply to these situations that were discussed. Items S, 8, and 9 were postponed to the next meeting date for discussion so that the Task force could focus on items 2 &4 which have priority. 3. Set Next Meeting Date and Agenda: The next meeting was set to take place on November 22, 2005 at 6:00 PM. They will look to have either Liz or Bart from the City to gather the information they would like to have on hand. 4. Additional Business: The Task Force finally stated that the behavior of all at the Committee meetings should show mutual respect, with respect to the Golden Rule. The meeting was adjourned at 6:42 pm.