City of Austin Council Message Board

Colleagues—

Below are the proposed changes that I was planning to discuss at Council Work Session yesterday to revise and improve our Council committee system. When we initiated the committee system, we pledged to review and improve it after 6 months. I believe now is a good time to have this discussion on our committees and make adjustments before more we get any further into the year.

The transition committee has helped identify certain aspects where the system can be strengthened; some of my proposals are reflected in the current draft of the transition committee report and others are not. I believe these proposals will improve the efficiency, transparency, and predictability of our process for Council, staff, and the public.

I am proposing two Council actions, a resolution that addresses the Council's desired purpose for committees, and a revised committee ordinance. Please let me know if you are interested in being a co-sponsor on these items.

Thanks!
Greg


Posting language: Approve a resolution stating the Council’s desired purpose for the Council committee system
The resolution will state:
A. The purpose of Council committees is to delegate a limited number of complex policy discussions to small groups who can more easily explore complicated policy issues or issues in dispute to generate useful policy solutions;
B. Council committees should also proactively craft policy on major city-wide issues;
C. Council committees can be a vehicle for taking public input early in the policy-making process if the committee believes that more early input would be helpful.
D. Committees should not be used for postponements—if Council desires more time, then Council Members are encouraged to discuss postponements at Work Session.
E. The Council assumes that items from the City Manager will go to Council, not directly to committee.


Posting language: Approve an ordinance amending Ordinance No. 20150129-026
The ordinance will state:
A. Items must be sponsored by a majority of committee members to be placed on the committee’s agenda.
B. Each committee of the Council will consist of 3 Council Members, instead of 4, with the exception of the AE Oversight Committee.
C. Recommendations from committee need to follow the same posting timeline as items from Council.
D. Public comment on items heard by committees should be extended beyond the current cap at Council. Public comment should have a standard cap at committee. Standardize as much as possible for transparency and predictability.**
E. The Council assumes that items from Council Members that go straight to the Council agenda are not bypassing committee. Council Members have the ability to post items to the Council agenda with 4 sponsors. Committees may decide if they wish to deliberate on items that are before Council.

**Except as required by law, the standard amount of public comment on an item will be __ hour(s) of public comment for an item at committee and __ hour(s) of public comment for an item at Council. (Blanks to be discussed and filled in by Council.)

Hi Greg,

Thank you for all the work you and your staff put in to these proposals. I’m willing to cosponsor both, but would like to propose an amendment to the ordinance to require any item originating from a committee (because there was a majority support of council members on the committee) to have a minimum of four sponsors before it can be placed on a Council agenda.

This is the current requirement for items from Council, but would require a little more consensus from our colleagues before items from committees could be considered by the full Council.
Please let me know if you’re open to including that language.

Best,
Delia

I appreciate the work that my colleagues have put forth regarding the Thursday 2/25 Council Meeting Agenda Item 42 on Chapter 2-5 of the City Code relating to council committees and procedures for council meetings.

A few things jump out at me:
1. A majority of a committee must sponsor an item on the committee agenda (Part 6 2-5-106). Does this violate Open Meetings Act/Walking Quorum rules?
2. How many council members on each committee? There was discussion about moving it down from 4 members to 3. Three members of a committee are a quorum (Part 5 2-5-105 B). If there are only 3 members on a committee and 1 member is unable to attend the committee meeting, would that meeting be canceled?
3. Four council members to send anything before the Council (Part 1 2-5-26 B 2; Part 1 2-5-26 D, Part 8 2-5-108 B). If the committee remains at 4 members and a given recommendation passes 4-0, will the item automatically be placed before the Full Council?
4. Public comment shall be taken in the same manner as for an item that has not been considered by a council committee (Part 2 2-5-29 A). Consequently, it makes little sense that anyone would testify in front of 3 or 4 members instead of all 11.

If these rules are enacted, it seems like we would be gutting the committee process. If that is the case, do we really need to have committees at all? What purpose would they serve?

Would it be better to have the full council meet at least once a week (i.e., every Thursday will be a council meeting or every Tuesday and Thursday) and have shorter meetings?
• We could make certain weeks be for standing issues, for example the first Thursday meeting would just be for procurement items.
• If we have multiple known big public interest topics (like TNCs, Small Lots Amnesty, and STRs) on the same agenda, we could move them to another meeting.
• Have the meetings go from 10am-6pm with a hard cut off at 6pm.
• Have proclamations and music at just one meeting a month.
• Would we really need Work Sessions or could we just discuss items at the Thursday Council Meetings?
• We should cancel “Work Sessions” and do Q&A with council members on the Council Message Board as it is far more efficient and easier to follow.

CM Casar, thanks for offering these changes. I'd be interested in co-sponsoring your initiative, and am supportive of having two members of a four-member committee as the basic requirement for placing items for consideration on committee agendas (rather than a majority). This tracks our practice during budget last summer, and is in effect a "second" for any item. I think it's important to demonstrate that at least one other member of a given committee (other than the Austin Energy Oversight Committee) is interested in taking up an issue. For the AE Oversight Committee, I would like to recommend three Council members indicate their willingness to take up an item as a minimum requirement for agenda posting; others may wish to weigh in on this. I'm basing it on the four-member minimum for Council agendas and the fact that the AE Oversight Cmte is a committee of the whole.

Thanks, and I look forward to our discussions tomorrow.

Leslie

Colleagues, I look forward to discussing the proposed ordinance with you again tomorrow during work session. If you have any amendments to the ordinance, please post them here on our message board so we can all review them.

Thanks!
Greg

From Council Member Houston:

Many thanks to the members of the Transition Committee for body of work and the ongoing refreshing of the draft ordinance to insure that Chapter 2-5 of the City Code, accurately reflects how the 10-1 Council and Council Committees will include, respond to and manage the work of the people of the City of Austin.

Below are my suggested amendments and rational to the most recent draft, in addition to questions regarding the intent.

For consistency in the amendment use either 'advisory board' or 'City board'. Most of the boards and commissions are advisory in nature, a few are not - some are sovereign - don't know how that affects their advisory nature or how that affects the vote threshold of the council or something else.


PART 1. City Code Section 2-5-26 (Agenda for Council Meetings)p.a of 8

(B)(2)the item has been reviewed by a council committee with accompanying recommendation that the item be placed on a future council agenda;

(3) the item is sponsored by four council members; or

(4) the item is an administrative matter,.......of the item.



PART 6. Section 2-5-105, page 5 of 8

(A) Delete the word 'live' in reference to public comment.



Part 6. Section 2-5-105 Committee Meetings. p.6 of 8 - Deleted (D) - Reinsert or add to Section 2-5-104 Staff Support

(B) (2) preparing and posting the agenda to including the identification of items that are district specific;

Comment:
With the number of committees, it is difficult to identify items that are district specific. Staff have done a great job on Council agenda items of identifying those that are district specific and added that information to the agenda. Adding those designations to the agenda of Council Committees would be beneficial.


(E) The Chair of a committee may allow the chair of an (see consistency issue above) to provide context and/or history regarding an item which was reviewed by that (see consistency issue above).

Comment:
Members of the council committee, other council members and the mayor comprise the deliberative body.


PART 7. City Code Section 2-5-106 (Committee Agendas). page 6 of 8

Comment:
Not sure why the Council Committees have such stringent requirements for a member of the committee to add an item to a council committee agenda? There might be something unique about the Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee. The current amendment has the option to move an item directly to council by getting four sponsors:
PART 1 City Code Section 2-5-26 (Agenda for Council Meetings) (B) (2).

As duly elected office holders, chairs must work with members of the committee and other members of council to reach an agreement based on timing, briefing from outside partners, etc., to respond to individual requests.



PART 10. City Code Section 2-5-108 (Committee Actions), page 7 of 8

(B) Delete the underlined sentence.


Comment: A quorum of a council committee is three. A quorum may take any of those actions delineated in (B) (1) - (5). Why would any of those actions also require the additional step of sponsorship by four council members? That process is already in place.

Thank you Council Members Pool and Houston. We’ve incorporated your suggestions into a revised version of our draft ordinance which will be proposed today.

Council Members,

Below please find a link to the draft committee ordinance. You'll also find a copy on blue paper at each of your seats on the dais.

http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 180522.pdf

Thank you,
Greg