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Home My WebLink About02/08/2011 - Study SessionCITY OF NEWPORT BEACH City Council Minutes City Council Study Session February 8, 2011— 4:00 p.m. I. ROLL CALL Present: Council Member Hill, Council Member Rosansky, Mayor Pro Tem Gardner, Mayor Henn, Council Member Selich, Council Member Daigle Excused: Council Member Curry II. CURRENT BUSINESS 1. CLARIFICATION OF ITEMS ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR. Regarding Item 5 (Records Retention Schedule), Council Member Hill received confirmation from City Clerk Brown that the "P" is an abbreviation for "Permanent" records. 2. CITY COUNCIL MEETING PROCEDURES, COUNCIL NORMS: INCLUDING CONSIDERATION OF UPDATING COUNCIL POLICIES A -6 (OPEN MEETING POLICIES) AND A -10 (PROCEDURAL RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS). [100 -20111 City Manager Kiff reported that the proposed amendments to Council Policies A -6 and A -10 will assist in improving the agenda with respect to having public comments earlier in the meeting and addressing the matter of how staff gets the agenda packet to Council and the public. Additionally, staff felt hat Council could address the subject of meeting decorum. Mayor Pro Tem Gardner asked about the feasibility of moving the agenda packet delivery to Thursday. City Manager Kiff stated that he would prefer to have Thursday as the packet day and if an item was not available that day, it would be moved to the next agenda. He added that updates would be less problematic with electronic delivery but, if a supplemental item is added to the agenda, the City Clerk would still be required to post the agenda again. Council Member Rosansky stated that he preferred leaving the public comment time to five minutes since it has worked well in the past and Council has the option of reducing the time on an as- needed basis. Mayor Pro Tem Gardner indicated that she prefers the five minute limit. Council Member Daigle suggested placing public comments for non- agenda items after the Consent Calendar. Council Member Rosansky added that there are also a number of staff members waiting to provide reports on agenda items and, since most of the items are passed, a majority of the staff can exit the meeting after their item is heard. Mayor Pro Tem Gardner felt it was a benefit and convenience to the public to allow them to speak early and to be able to communicate with Council early in the evening rather than have to wait through to the end of a lengthy meeting. Volume 60 - Page 44 City of Newport Beach City Council Study Session February S, 2011 Council Member Daigle stated that, with respect to Council decorum, she was unaware of inappropriate behavior by any of her colleagues and wondered why the norms should be established. Council Member Hill asked about addressing Council and why speakers would not be required to state their name. City Attorney Hunt reported that, pursuant to the Brown Act, Council can ask individuals to identify themselves but is not allowed to force anyone. Mayor Henn asked about the open meeting policy issue of not conducting two meetings per month. City Manager Kiff stated that he did not believe that issue needed to be addressed in this context. Mayor Henn stated that, with respect to the time for Public Comments, he would agree to move the agenda item to immediately following the Consent Calendar which is a big improvement over the current agenda placement. Further, he would prefer that fewer Consent Calendar items be pulled in the future. He stated that he felt there was not only a benefit to moving up the time for public comment but that the public would understand in advance that there was a three- minute limit in order for them to calibrate their comments. Furthermore, he believed it was possible to present a cogent argument on an item in three minutes and to the extent that the argument needs further explanation or detail, it should be presented in written form to Council for consideration. In addition, where there is a large group of public members who wish to speak to the same item the Council could encourage a spokesperson from that group and provide a longer time limit for that person. Council Member Rosansky expressed the opinion that.the problem with allowing some people more time is that it might appear as arbitrarily granting time for persons who are speaking in tune with the Mayor's opinions. The public has a right to speak and three minutes may be a short time to cogently present a topic to Council. Council Member Daigle believed that project applicants might need five minutes to speak about their projects. Mayor Henn agreed and was assured by staff that a five minute allocation for applicants is in the current policy. Mayor Pro Tern Gardner agreed with Council Member Daigle that the Council Members are not abusive but believed that written norms would provide a sense of confidence to the public that all Council Members are obliged to follow certain mandates. Mayor Henn agreed that upgrading norms in accordance with the new technologies was appropriate because the issue of unintended impressions perceived by the public is a legitimate issue. City Attorney Hunt asked for Council's input on voter abstention based on a possible conflict of interest as stated on page 9 of Council Policy A -10, and that a yellow light will indicate an abstention to an item. It was the consensus of Council to amend the abstention issue as presented in communications from Jim Mosher. Jim Mosher referred to written comments he sent to Council addressing the City's Charter with respect to voting issues. He expressed concern with a proposed reduction of time for public comments on agenda items and with the opportunity the City Council has to revise the policies with respect to the passage of .ordinances. He Volume 60 - Page 45 City of Newport Beach City Council Study Session February 8, 2011 felt that moving Public Comments to the beginning of the meeting should not negate further comment at the end of the meeting and that the time for public comments should be left at five minutes. Novell Hendrickson believed that the Public Comments on non - agenda items should be at the beginning of the meeting and kept to five minutes to allow the public to participate. Following discussion, Council concurred that Public Comments should follow the Consent Calendar; that the time allotted for each speaker should be five minutes for agenda items (following lack of consensus to reduce the time limit to three minutes); that the delivery day for agenda packets should be the Thursday prior to the City Council meeting; and that Public Comments on non - agenda items should only occur once on the agenda. Mayor Henn proposed that City Attorney Hunt address Mr. Mosher's concerns and come back with recommendations. Regarding decorum, Council Members felt that interruptions should be limited to those of urgency. Council Member Selich did not see any reason to have the set of norms. Council Members concurred to eliminate this item in its entirety. City Attorney Hunt received concurrence from Council that the abstention language would be changed as he had recommended. III. PUBLIC COMMENTS Novell Hendrickson said it appeared to her that the Council was "voting" during Study Session and that voting should be reserved for the Regular Meeting and only for agendized items. City Attorney Hunt explained that Council was taking a straw poll of issues for purposes of writing the Council Policies and that actual voting on the item would take place during the Regular Meeting of February 22. He added that straw polls are helpful for staff to gain an understanding of Council's direction for placing items on future agendas for consideration. Mayor Pro Tem Gardner pointed out that there has been in fact, no final decision with respect to public speaking time limits or any other items that would be placed on a City Council agenda for consideration. IV. ADJOURNMENT - 4:46 p.m. The agenda for the Study.Session was posted on February 2, 2011, at 2:10 p.m. on the City Hall Bulletin Board located outside of the City of Newport Beach Administration Building. Recording Secretary Volume 60 - Page 46 City of Newport Beach City Council Study Session February 8, 2011 Mayor Volume 60 - Page 47