Dear Honorable Mayor and Council Members,

Regarding possible changes to the Council procedures manual, I encourage you
to consider the following:

   - The opportunity cost of staff spending time modifying the procedures
   manual when more pressing issues and higher priorities remain inadequately
   addressed. Examples: plan for El Camino, plan for commercial zones
   (especially M2), economic plan. Why waste constrained resources on "form"
   like this when "substance" is needed on far more important matters?
   - Distribution of agenda materials
   - Wednesday distribution would be a distinct improvement, particularly
      on those weeks the city is closed on Friday and no staff available until
      Monday.
      - Advance distribution of material related to complex or
      controversial topics would be very beneficial to allow more time for the
      Council and the public to review the material, ask questions, and prepare
      comments.
   - Placing items on the agenda
   - Council member requests - the new practice of requiring two Council
      Members to formally request a topic seems to be overkill and
might actually
      eliminate the possibility of the full Council deciding what to put on its
      agenda. For example, if a Council Member approaches a second
member about a
      topic, according to the Brown Act the requesting Council Member cannot
      approach a third member in the event that the second member declines to
      participate in the Memorandum. If Council Members expect they
always would
      agree with another on Memoranda, then why bother adding this unnecessary
      step?
      - Commission reports - if the Council does not discuss or act on
      Commission reports during the same meeting at which the reports
are given,
      the current policy seems adequate.
      - Study sessions
   - These should be informational and educational for the public and the
      Council, with no direction provided to staff. The phrase
"general direction"
      allows too wide a range of definitions, and inadequately informs
the public
      about the topic for which direction might be given.
      - Any direction required by staff should be requested in
      specific terms at a subsequent formal meeting date (not the same day) to
      allow preparation of appropriate material such as summaries of
the session
      as well as responses to questions that arose during the study session.
      - Study sessions should be held where they can be recorded for
      subsequent viewing by the public. Even in the Council chambers,
some degree
      of informality can be obtained by meeting around a table rather
than at the
      dais.

I encourage you to discuss these items briefly, giving staff direction but
not requiring them to spend time modifying the Procedures Manual, and focus
the bulk of the Council meeting and staff time on higher priority matters.

Patti
Received on Tue Apr 17 10:54:45 2007