2016-01 AMENDING CITY CODE - CHAPTER 6 - CITY COUNCIL

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CITY COUNCIL MEMORANDUM NO. 2016- TO: City Council FROM: Mayor Moore-Wolfe DATE: January 7, 2016 SUBJECT: Chapter 6 Amendment As a Council, we are always looking at ways to be as efficient as possible at our Council meetings while still maintaining our effectiveness. Many have expressed a desire to seek ways to improve on those and provide for a more deliberative process for Council to discuss items and issues we are tasked with acting on. Chapter 6 of the City Code sets forth the Order of Business for our Council meetings. Appearance of Citizens is currently near the bottom of the Agenda. The Amendment presented tonight would place Appearance of Citizens at the beginning of the meeting. It is vitally important that we hear from our citizens and the public. This change will allow persons to address Council on any item of interest to them including items on the Agenda. They will not have to address Council multiple times if they have more than one issue they are interested in and would also allow them to address Council on items not on the Agenda at the same time. There are often occasions where citizens wishing to address Council are unable to because of the length of time they have to wait to do so and we miss the opportunity to learn of their concerns. This change will hopefully lead to a better opportunity for Council to engage in a truly deliberate discussion and process while still seeking public opinion and allowing public comments.