Observations

Aids For Citizens To Follow Legislative Actions

My Home Page now consolidates links to the City Website where citizens can find material regarding Mayor and Council (M&C) legislative actions. 

In theory, If M&C follows the disciplined procedure for regularly scheduled meetings, several days before a meeting one can view on the City Website the Agendas for upcoming meetings, AND the Packets of material that have been provided to M&C for reference in their legislative deliberations. That enables citizens to decide whether what is to be discussed merits contacting their Councilperson in advance of the meeting, or whether to submit email comments in advance of the meeting (if allowed, and if read), or whether to attend the meeting to provide public comments (if allowed, and if time permits). Even if not providing comments, a citizen can still use the material to follow along with the discussions as they watch the meeting live-streamed on YouTube (or watch it after the fact on YouTube). 

Several days after the meeting, one can view on the City Website, as Official Action Items, short summaries of the actions that were taken at the meeting. At the next Regular Council Meeting, the detailed minutes of the previous meeting are reviewed, corrected, and (hopefully) approved. The Official (Approved) Council Minutes are then filed by the City Clerk and posted on the City Website for citizen viewing.

How does this very transparent process go wrong?

1. If some of the necessary material does not meet the publication date for the Packets and is provided to M&C at the meeting (e.g., in a presentation at the meeting) then M&C does not have an opportunity to review it and ask clarifying questions prior to the meeting. And of course, citizens may never see it unless they watch the meeting or make a FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request.

2. If some of the necessary material does not meet the publication date for the Packets and is provided to M&C via email, later but prior to the meeting, M&C may not have adequate time to review it. In this case, M&C could remove the item from the agenda or table discussion on it. If that does not happen, citizens will never see all the material unless they make a well written FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request.

3. If staff, or a member of M&C, is allowed by M&C to add an item to the agenda at the meeting with/or without supporting material, which several/or all of M&C may/or may not have seen, the wisdom of any decision made is questionable. Furthermore, citizens may never be able to understand the logic of the decision, even with a FOIA request.