The West Hollywood City Council on Monday will consider taking steps to streamline its meetings, which begin with a closed session at 6 p.m. and have been known to continue into the early hours of the morning.
The council has drawn criticism from residents, many of whom appear to speak on items that aren’t brought up until after midnight. Also, the council since August has reduced the frequency of its meetings — once twice a month — to once a month. The result has been a much longer agenda.
Mayor Lauren Meister is proposing the council take the following steps to reduce the length of the meetings:
— Limit the number of items on the council’s consent calendar to 26 proposed by city staffers plus any other added by council members. Items are placed on the consent calendar under the assumption that will be approved without debate. However the council frequently takes time rearranging its agenda at the beginning of each meeting, removing consent items for further discussion. Any items that exceed the limit for the consent calendar would be moved to the following council meeting unless they are time sensitive.
— Move “adjournment motions” to the end of the council meeting. Such motions are public acknowledgements by individual council members of the deaths of locally prominent or nationally significant figures.
— Have the city clerk make announcements of upcoming city events between 6 and 6:30 p.m., before the “call to order” that opens the public session of the council meeting. Currently individual council members take time on the dais to read out upcoming events that already are posted on the city’s website.
— Extend the public comment period at the beginning of the meeting to 30 minutes. Currently it is limited to 20 minutes, with each commenter given 2 minutes to talk. However in recent months Mayor Meister has limited individual comments to 90 or as few as 60 second to accommodate a large number of speakers.
— Limit presentations to one per council meetings. Other presentations can be made at the recipient’s business, at a city board or commission meeting or at a special council meeting devoted to such presentations. Presentations are ceremonies in which a council member presented an award or certificate of acknowledgement to a person or group for contributions to the community.
— Setting an 11 p.m. stop time for new items to be discussed by the council.
In her proposal, Meister notes that “one of the reasons the recent meetings have gone later than usual is because several meetings were cancelled due to the summer vacation months and fall holidays.” She said that if the city finds it difficult to limit consent calendar items or must take up new items after 11 p.m. it can consider scheduling additional meetings.
Manny, perhaps your correct good buddy.. ten minutes tops— its not like they can’t speak all night on the issues on the agenda.. ten minutes tops for fluff other stuff not pertinent to the agenda.. or resume it at the end… and Jenny..lol who are you I want to take you to lunch.
Maybe we could start with The Mayor talking to her commissioners before the meeting and summarizing their comments.
Public participation is a serious matter and not necessarily limited to general comment or attached to specific items and/or issues. If a constituent is serious about an issue or item, they are free to do the ground work of addressing a particular council member(s). One gets to put it on paper or in an email so it can be evaluated and discussed in a follow up. Many residents seem confused about the process and mistake it for venting, grandstanding and/or chastising council members or other city officials. If you have an issue pick up the phone, send an email to… Read more »
Why not limit the endless dreary grandstanding comments by the council members?
Actually Larry, the only people at a council meeting that we ELECTED are the five seated at the dais.
I want to hear what they have to say with no limits.
I’m glad to see our Mayor take the lead to restore shorter meetings. Mayor Meister has been a major factor in the length of our Council meetings. For one, there is a reason item’s are on consent. Right Mayor?
Please don’t hold most to 90 seconds or 2 minutes and select other go well over the time limit you, the Mayor set at the start of each meeting.
Additionally, I think the Council should hold their remarks as tight and to-the-point to help reduce length of Council meetings. Would you not agree Mayor Meister?
Yes I got an earful after my comment on Wehoville about Lauren’s obliteration of the public comment period. One of her appointees yelled loudly at me, another sent out a email to people calling me vicious, and a third said albeit in a loving manner, “I ought to take you outside and punch you in the face”. But it prompted a discussion with myself, Ivy Bottini, and Lauren’s planning commissioner Sheila Lightfood and we can thank Sheila for having a thorough discussion with Lauren and bringing these suggestions forward. One other suggestion that should not be overlooked ‘limit council member… Read more »
I thought Ms. Meister you had either ‘caught on’ or realized the futility in trying to make any information going from city hall to the people, as hard and buried deep in the non-sense of the litany of ministerial acts FIRST – and the most concerning issues for residents are last, the really upsetting issues often lead to a near midnight end to a marathon meeting, after most have left, fallen asleep or became nauseated at the gross refusal to inform or listen to residents concerns. Option 3: Have you drunk the kool-aid, and are intentionally making this as a… Read more »
Thanks for your leadership in this, Mayor Meister. Some corrective actions should happen to make the business of the people be more open to the people during reasonable hours.
I would add one suggestion, known contentious items, that will have many participating, on one or both sides, should be considered for a Saturday morning council meeting.