HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-21-2015 Minutes - Council RetreatCouncil Minutes
r-1, l City Hall, 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo
Tuesday, May 21, 2015
Special Meeting of the City Council
CALL TO ORDER
A Special Meeting of the San Luis Obispo City Council was called to order on Thursday, May
21, 2015 at 8:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Express Conference Room, located at 1800 Monterey
Street, San Luis Obispo, California, by Mayor Marx.
ROLL CALL
Council Members
Present: Council Members Dan Carpenter, Carlyn Christianson, Dan Rivoire, Vice Mayor
John Ashbaugh, and Mayor Jan Marx.
Council Members
Absent: None
City Staff
Present: Katie Lichtig, City Manager, and Christine Dietrick, City Attorney, were present
at Roll Call.
PUBLIC COMMENT
There were no members of the public desiring to speak.
A. WORKSHOP AND TRAINING ON CITY COUNCIL OPERATIONS AND
PROTOCOLS FACILITATED BY TRUDY SOPP
Dr. Trudy Sopp, Centre for Organization Effectiveness, facilitated a workshop and
training on City Council operations and protocols. Council discussion ensued regarding
the definitions of good governance, appropriate meeting decorum, and the roles and
expectations of the Mayor and members of City Council.
During the course of discussion, Council reached consensus on expectations for the role
of Mayor and members of the City Council, as follows:
Expectations of the Mayor
• The Mayor will use "out of order" to stop any comments or actions of a Council
Member; the Council Member will immediately stop behavior or verbal comments.
• The Mayor will immediately recognize a "point of order" and all discussion will halt
to hear that point of order.
San Luis Obispo City Council Minutes of May 21, 2015 Pa „;c 2
• As a rule of thumb, the Mayor will use a round robin approach, two questions at a
time for each Council Member, when asking for Council Member questions after a
staff presentation.
• The Mayor should also use the gavel to get compliance, turn off the microphones of
Council Members, and/or take a recess if necessary.
• The Mayor should use her discretion on all of the above but she has the permission
and encouragement of the Council Members to control the meetings in this way.
Expectations of Council Members
• Council Members will listen and obey the orders of the Mayor.
• Council Members will use "point of order” in order to ensure a fair and focused
discussion.
• Each Council Member will stop talking if "out of order" is stated by the Mayor or
"point of order" is stated by a fellow Council Member; the Mayor will make a ruling
and even when a Council Member disagrees with the ruling, they will still abide by
the decision.
• If the Council Member feels the Mayor was unfair in applying her discretion, the
discussion of this should occur outside of the Council meeting.
• Council Members use formal titles e.g., "Council Member," when addressing each
other; the purpose of this is to reinforce the use of decorum.
• Council Members will provide any list of questions they have for staff, on the Friday
or weekend before the Council meeting, a heads up memo or phone call would also
be sufficient.
• Council Members will eliminate side bars between each other (per existing policies
and procedures manual).
ADJOURNMENT
The City Council adjourned.
APPROVED BY COUNCIL: 06/16/2015