Motion Amending Council Policies - Placing Items on Agenda

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May 11, 2023 TO: Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe & Decatur City Council Members FROM: Scot Wrighton, City Manager RE: Possible Revision of City Council Policy Regarding Agenda Formulation In accordance with existing City Council Policy A(5)(b),on March 20, 2023 two members of the City Council requested that a provision of City Council Policy A(3)(a) be re-evaluated, and that council members discuss and potentially amend existing policy governing the number of council members required to place new action items on future published agendas. To be clear, the discussion and potential amendment changes to the City Council Policy are for new action items only. For study session items,existing City Council Policy(A)(3)(g)allows study session items to be placed on future published agendas if four members of the City Council concur with the request. A copy of the existing policy language is attached, with the pertinent section highlighted. City Council agendas are set by the Mayor and City Manager. As a practical matter, however, the Mayor and City Manager both engage in ongoing and regular one-on-one conversations with council members, citizens, senior staff, vendors, stakeholders, intergovernmental partners, and others, all of which contribute to the development of meeting agendas. In short, creating the council's agendas is a collaborative process with input from numerous sources. Additionally, each regular City Council meeting agenda includes an "Other Business" section where individual council members can raise any issue they wish (although no votes can be taken on items that are not specifically listed on the agenda). Items raised and briefly discussed under"Other Business"have often resulted in consensus decisions by the council (or simple majority decisions) to direct the city manager to place an item of interest to a majority of council members onto a future agenda where a formal vote or some other action can occur. Although no votes are taken on matters raised under the "Other Business" section of the agenda, informal council discussions held in this way often help city staff better understand the desires and intentions of the governing body for purposes of preparing background documents for future agendas. The intent of City Council Policy A(3)(a) is: 1)provide an avenue for council members to go around the Mayor and City Manager if they believe agenda management by the Mayor and City Manager is suppressing the will of the City Council, and/or they are ignoring requests for items to be placed on the agenda that most council members want included; while simultaneously, 2) limiting preparatory staff work for action items such as policies, ordinances,projects and initiatives to those a majority of council members want considered. The City Council is free to amend their policies as they wish, in this case to manage how items are placed on their agendas. The specific issue for which review was requested concerns the number of council members that shall be required to place an item on the agenda, and whether the rules for the same should be different for regular council meetings, as opposed to study sessions and special meetings. Options for changing the language of existing policy are attached for council's consideration. Since there is no recommended action to be placed `on the floor' to commence