City Council Ad Hoc Rules and Procedures Committee of the Whole Meeting

The Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole on Rules met to consider proposed changes to the City Council’s rules for the 14th session, appoint committee leadership, and review several ordinance proposals. Committee members nominated and approved Scott Mandeville as Chair (8-0-1) and Michael Hogg as Vice Chair (9-0). Public commenters asked councilors to attend a school budget meeting and requested transparency and funding for town softball fields.

Substantive rule actions included an amendment to Ordinance 2024-016 (Rule 6G Appeal) that deleted the sentence forbidding debate on appeals of the chair and revised the appeal question wording; that amendment passed unanimously and the amended ordinance was sent to the Ordinance and Administration subcommittee with a positive recommendation. The committee split Ordinance 2024-017 to consider only re-establishing a Joint Education Committee, voted to forward that portion to the Ordinance and Administration subcommittee with a positive recommendation and requested revised language making administration participants non-voting invitees. Other items: Ordinance 2024-018 (Order of Business) was referred to the subcommittee with a negative recommendation, and consideration of Ordinance 2024-019 (Meeting Schedule) was continued for later discussion. Debates centered on committee structure and powers, whether subcommittees should consolidate into an ad hoc committee of the whole, membership (ex-officio vs. invitees), open meeting law/quorum concerns, and how department presentations and finance matters should be handled.