The City Council Policy Manual Ad Hoc Committee convened on Feb. 18 to discuss revisions to the City Council Policy and Operation Manual. City staff was directed to refine the language of a policy addressing whether councilmembers may take formal action at study session meetings.
City Councilmember Craig Corman and Vice Mayor Sharona Nazarian, the members of the ad hoc committee, agreed to recommend language clarifying that City Council will only take formal action at study sessions if it is reasonably necessary or appropriate.
The language builds on an ordinance passed previously which caused considerable concern among community members.
“This was a hot potato last time we had this discussion at the City Council level,” said Corman. “There were people who felt that the ordinance that allows actions to be taken at study sessions was changed in the dead of night many years ago, and they didn’t know about it. We’re changing the policy manual to be consistent.”
The City Council Policy and Operation Manual was written in 2009. The current revision process began in August 2021, at which time the sitting City Council agreed to split the document into a handbook and a manual.
The handbook, once complete, will contain historical and general information about the city, and the manual will contain the city’s policy and procedural information.
City staff has since drafted drafted edits to both the handbook and the manual. Those edits include proposed updated language for policies regarding study sessions.
The 2009 version of the manual states that the council “shall not take any formal or binding action upon any resolution, ordinance or other action required by law to be taken by the council,” adding that such actions are reserved for formal City Council meetings.
The new language proposed by city staff and discussed at the Feb. 18 meeting would change that language to read, “While the City Council may take formal action at a study session meeting, it is the aim of the City Council that the public comment on major items should generally occur at the formal session.”
Nazarian and Corman agreed that the proposal needs to be clarified and sent it back to staff to edit. Both wanted the language to make explicit that the council’s intent is not to take action during study sessions.
“The language, right now, isn’t quite as clear as I think it could be,” said Corman. “We made the change years ago, and we’re making the policy manual change to be consistent, but it is not something we are going to regularly do or intend to do to somehow short circuit public comment or public input.”
According to City Manager Nancy Hunt-Coffey, there have been several occasions upon which formal decisions have been made at study sessions, but it’s unusual.
“I believe one of the Oct. 7 meetings where we needed to approve funding for the flags … we took that action at that meeting,” she said at the Feb. 19 meeting. “It’s pretty rare, but I understand tightening up the language.”
