SUBJECT
Title
Approval of Subcommittee #1 Recommendation Regarding Charter Section 611 (Regular Meetings)
Report
BACKGROUND
At the Committee meeting on June 30, Subcommittee #1 provided the following analysis and recommendation regarding Charter Section 611, and the Committee discussed taking action at a future meeting to make a decision:
Sec. 611 (Regular Meetings)
We recommend against revision of the current language. We are concerned that any revision would be mistakenly perceived by some citizens as an effort by Council members to work less. This misconception could undermine public trust and be detrimental to a Charter revision to improve compensation for Council members and the mayor.
If the Council wants to create a break to accommodate vacations or holidays, this could be done through the schedule that is set, in the language of Sec. 611, "by ordinance or resolution." Within this language, a four-week break could be created by scheduling meetings on the first and second Tuesdays of a month and then the second Tuesday of the next month. A six-week break could be created by meeting on the first and second Tuesdays of a month and then the third and fourth Tuesdays of the next month. It should be noted that meetings in consecutive weeks may create meeting preparation difficulties for the staff, especially in June, when the next fiscal year's budget is being considered. Holidays may also make it difficult to meet in consecutive weeks.
The Council is currently meeting approximately 40 times a year. With that number of meetings, it seems that a break of more than six weeks is not feasible even if permitted by revised Charter language. If, for example, the Charter were revised to require a minimum of 24 meetings per year, with at least one per month, meetings could be scheduled to permit an eight-week break. But the current workload that results in 40 meetings per year makes an eight-week break seem infeasible.
Our conclusion is that the Council's workload,...
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