Ordinance 11-22

This ordinance would change city code to clarify and harmonize scheduling policies for council committees, whether they be standing committees, special committees or the committee of the whole. It unifies committee scheduling policies, scattered throughout Article III of Chapter 2.04 of municipal code, under a single new section 2.04.255. The first section of this ordinance specifically covers meetings “convened to consider legislation referred” to standing committees and committees of the whole. (Special committees, even if legislation has been referred to them, are excepted.) It specifically contemplates the fourth sentence of BMC 2.04.210, which provides that “all council members may attend the meetings of any standing committee,” by guaranteeing that meetings of standing committees not overlap. It also takes into account the precedent set by BMC 2.04.420, which discourages the introduction of legislation for Council action after 10:30 pm, by guaranteeing that standing committees can be scheduled to start no later than 9:45 pm. The combination of serial meetings and a limited window for them dictates that standing committees will have to schedule start and end times. This will require committee members to keep an eye on the meeting clock. It also emphasizes that committees should refrain from extended debate, which should be a matter for the full Council. Committee meetings should instead function as opportunities to focus on the questions that the full Council would be most interested in. (The last serial committee meeting of an even-numbered Wednesday night does not have to specify an end time and can thus go late, but ought to anticipate an end time whenever possible; the spirit of 2.04.420 is to respect the difficulty that anyone would have trying to deliberate or legislate at a late hour. That spirit is also why this ordinance explicitly allows for committee meeting start times as early as 5:30 pm.) The second section of this ordinance moves language prohibiting the scheduling of committee meetings on holidays to its own heading, and clarifies it to apply to all types o committees. Since committees could possibly meet on days other than Wednesday, it clarifies the definition of the end-of-the-year recess to disallow any official meeting between the fourth Wednesday of December and the end of the year. The third section of this ordinance simply removes a line specifying when committees of the whole are to meet, since it is made redundant by the previous parts of this ordinance