This past September the Scottsdale City Council implemented a new set of Council Rules of Procedure in an effort to help the flow of council meetings. Some of the changes and clarifications are good, and some clearly do not favor the citizens.
There have been some kinks in the few meetings since these rules were implemented. Overall, City Clerk Carolyn Jagger has been, for her part, gracious in trying to help me and others work through the new rules.
Some particular sections of interest include:
- Rules 6.11 and 6.22 govern placing items on the meeting agenda for discussion. These rules clearly favor the mayor (who can place items at-will) and the council majority. As we have seen several times, council members not in the majority cannot even get items DISCUSSED let alone agendized.
- Rule 7 govern public comment. Note that 7.4 limits speakers addressing consent agenda items to one opportunity to address any or all consent agenda items.
- Rule 8 is for citizen petitions requires that you submit a request to speak card in order to speak to your petition.
- Rule 10, debate and decorum and,
- Rule 11, voting and motions are the most cumbersome portions of these new rules. I do not like the rigid structure, but I suppose the tradeoff is supposed to be less disorganized debate.
Other thoughts, anyone?