Ordinance 12-10

This ordinance changes city code to clarify and harmonize scheduling policies for council committees, whether they be standing, special or 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. Two changes address 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 does not allow for standing committees to overlap and guarantees that standing committees can be scheduled to start no later than 9:4 pm. In deference to the role of standing committees, motions for referral to a standing committee shall be entertained before a motion for referral to the committee of the whole and shall include the approximate time at which the committee will convene. Another change moves language prohibiting the scheduling of committee meetings on holidays to its own heading, and clarifies it to apply to all types of 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.