Ordinance 11-21

This ordinance is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Volan, Piedmont-Smith, Rollo and Wisler. It swaps two words of Bloomington municipal code. It changes from a requirement to an option ("shall" to “may”) that legislation before the City Council be referred to a committee of the whole, and changes from an option to a requirement (“may to “shall”) that legislation be referred to one or more of a slate of standing committees. The Council would thus refer any pending legislation to a standing committee, while still being able to refer to committee of the whole for big issues such as the annual city budget. Making this change will help Council manage its growing workload more effectively, while in a manner more time-efficient for individual Council members, City employees, petitioners, and members of the public. The use of standing committees, as defined by long-extant code, will lengthen the default legislative cycle without compromising efficiency when desired, will shorten meetings, will not reduce Council member privilege, and will allow Council members to focus on their areas of expertise and interest to their c