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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcocc_council_mtg_minutes_20220906_workshopCAPE CANAVERAL CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING City Hall Council Chambers 100 Polk Avenue, Cape Canaveral, Florida 32920 Tuesday September 6, 2022 5:00 p.m. MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: The Chair called the Meeting to Order at 5:00 p.m. Council Member Davis led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Council Members Present: Council Member Mayor Pro Tem Mayor Council Member Council Member Kim Davis Mickie Kellum Wes Morrison Angela Raymond Don Willis Others Present: City Manager City Attorney City Clerk Leisure Services/Community Affairs Director Executive Assistant to CM/Office Manager Brevard County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: None. DISCUSSION: Todd Morley Anthony Garganese Mia Goforth Molly Thomas Lisa Day Kyle Cummins 1. Shorter, Efficient/Effective Meetings: Mayor Morrison discussed the purpose of the Workshop Meeting. City Manager Morley explained the Item, suggested Council could build its own rules of procedure, and review each of the Topics/Impacts contained in Attachment 2 of the Agenda Packet. Discussion ensued and included limiting a second meeting in the month for large groups of like -items similar to the recent Zoning Ordinances, conducting workshop meetings just prior to Regular City Council Meetings, City Council Meetings are business meetings, support for City Council meeting rules of procedure, and limiting Council Member and Staff speaking times, inefficiency of conducting business late at night, a goal of three-hour meetings, and have the Mayor/Chair control public comments. City Manager Morley read each of the Topics/Impacts: 1. Know the type and purpose of the meeting: Discussion ensued and included minding the times anticipated for each section of an agenda and using such as guides. Council reached consensus to add language to each Regular City Council Meeting Agenda to indicate that all Agenda Section times are estimates and subject to change. 2. Deviation from Agenda: Council reached consensus to add "Approval of the Agenda" at the beginning of each Regular City Council Meeting. Discussion ensued regarding how "Approval of the Agenda" works, and would not include adding new items -to agendas which may - catch Council Members by surprise. City of Cape Canaveral, Florida City Council Workshop Meeting • September 6, 2022 Minutes Page 2 of 3 3. Limiting number of items Council Members may place on an agenda: Discussion ensued regarding desire to allow Council access to draft agendas, providing an estimated number of items on draft agendas, the need to inform the City Manager to discuss a Council Member's timing of their item for an agenda, and "Approval of the Agenda" could be used to prioritize those Council Member items. 4. Discussions: Discussion ensued regarding Robert's Rules of Order for limiting discussion, Council Members keeping track each other's time, how most Members speak four minutes or less, respecting each other's time. City Manager Morley suggested/explained the proper use of Robert's Rules of Order/Call the Question. Council reached consensus to use Robert's Rules of Order/Call the Question during Council discussion/debate. City Attorney Garganese advised the use of Call the Question is already there as a guard rail which Mayor and Council must apply themselves. 5. Reiterating: Discussion ensued around how repeating and reiteration happen during passionate topics. 6. "Information only" topics: Council reached consensus to refrain from discussion of these items unless Council acts to place them elsewhere on the Agenda during "Approval of the Agenda". 7. Ending discussion: Council reached consensus that Robert's Rules of Order must be applied to be effective. 8. Motions: Council reached consensus to make clear/concise motions. 9. More information needed: Council reached consensus to request additional information on topics or items that cannot be obtained during a meeting, and choose between Option 1 or 2 as contained within Attachment 2/Suggestions for Shorter, Efficient/Effective Meetings (attached). 10. Decisiveness: Council reached consensus to provide clear, well -stated decisions/direction to Staff. 11. Acceptance: Council reached consensus to respect and accept actions taken by the City Council. 12. Late revealed information: Discussion ensued regarding bringing a "Rules of Procedure" back for Council consideration as soon as October, recognizing Council's duty to bring last minute and new information to the City Manager before Council Meetings, Staff opinions and advocacy, the City Manager's duty to meet with each Council Member individually versus with Council's limited ability to communicate with each other outside of public meetings, how information related to an upcoming City Council Meeting should be shared with Staff ahead of time to ensure all of Council receives the same information prior to meeting, Council and Staff working as team, issues with the former City Manager, the need to remember that citizen engagement includes all citizens not just a few, and the difficulties of being the Mayor and leader of the City. Council reached consensus for new, unexpected and important information to be shared with Staff, if possible, before Council Meetings to properly evaluate and advise Council. 13. Public Comment: Council reached consensus for the Mayor/Chair to direct Staff to mute those Public Comment speakers going past the 3-minute allotted time. 14. Managing large attendance: Discussion ensued regarding 1-2 minute time limits amongst large numbers of speakers that have turned in Speaker Cards on the same topic, Council acknowledging groups of people and requesting groups designate a spokesperson to address Council. Council reached consensus to ensure Staff is made aware of larger than normal attendance. City of Cape Canaveral, Florida City Council Workshop Meeting • September 6, 2022 Minutes • Page 3 of 3 Council reached consensus for the Mayor/Chair to enforce a "no interruptions rule" and ensure speakers be recognized by the Mayor/Chair before speaking. Discussion ensued and included how Council may call for a Workshop if needed, importance of citizen input, being good stewards of the City's money, how other local municipalities meet 2-3 times a month, and the possibility of starting meetings at 5:00 p.m. City Manager Morley discussed next steps. Council reached consensus for Staff to prepare a Draft Rules of Procedure for Council to review and submit revisions to the City Manager's Office, then bring it back to a Council Meeting for action; and to place "Approval of the Agenda" on the September 21, 2022 Regular City Council Meeting Agenda. Shannon Roberts, resident, discussed how the number of agenda items for Council Meetings are excessive and would be managed better with two meetings per month. Discussion ensued on ideas to manage the amount of items on future City Council Meeting agendas. ADJOURNMENT: The Meeting was adjourned at 7:17 p.m. Wes Morrison, Mayor Mia Goforth, City Clerk September 6, 2022 City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes Attachment City of Cape Canaveral Suggestions for Shorter, Efficient/Effective Meetings Attachment 2 Time Management is key to holding shorter, more efficient/effective meetings. The items below take into consideration many factors that will make meetings less of a time burden on Council, Staff and the Community. To be effective, Council Members and City Attorney will need to take a more active role in acknowledging and holding each other accountable for time management practices. In many cases, applying the already established Robert's Rules of Order and the Code of Conduct (Sec. 2-28) will greatly reduce length of meetings. Topic Impact Know the type and purpose of the Failing to respect the apportioned time for items leads to meeting: Understand the purpose of the meeting, which is to efficiently conduct the business of the City, as listed in the agenda. The business items are presented to be taken up in an orderly manner with appropriate people in attendance. Times anticipated for each item are provided to guide Council toward a reasonable timeframe for each item. lengthy meetings. Council Meetings are Regular, Workshop, and Special Meetings that are properly noticed and open to the public at which Elected Officials discuss City business items, reach consensus and/or take actions on those items. Minutes must be taken at each of these meetings. Staff members such as the City Manager and City Attorney should be in attendance (CA may or may not be needed for Workshops.) See Division 3. Meetings in the City Code. Deviation from set agenda: Unless the Adding an unscheduled item will undoubtedly prolong a Council formally approves a critical unscheduled add -on item, do not deviate from the Agenda. meeting. Unscheduled add -on items may catch fellow Council Members by surprise. Council Members should always Suggestion: City Council has the authority to request all future agendas contain a time for formally accepting or amending the agenda at the beginning of the meeting. have adequate time to review items thoroughly. 1 Limiting number of items Council Members place on an agenda: City Council can voluntarily restrict the number of items they allow themselves to place on an agenda without Council approval. When Council Members place multiple items on an agenda, it can add to the length of a meeting. Discussions: Avoid long, drawn -out discussions. Discussions should be well thought out, concise and informative. Long, drawn -out discussions not only extend the length of the meeting, but often impair the audience's level of engagement and may cause them to leave early. Reiterating: Avoid multiple re -stating and/or reiterating of a position with the intent to persuade an alternate opinion from a fellow Council Member, especially when Council Members have each discussed and been provided adequate time to respond to the topic. Re -stating the same information, repeatedly, not only extends the length of the meeting, but often impairs the audience's level of engagement and may even cause them to leave early. Council Members have the right and duty to express their individual opinions and be persuasive. But this should be done without attempting to excessively wear - down positions that have already been stated by fellow Council Members. Continued abuse on this point can be perceived as bullying. "Information only" topics: Topics located in the Informational section of the Agenda should not be discussed. If a Council Member wishes to discuss an Informational Item, there should be a formal vote to amend the Agenda and make the item a Discussion Item. Informational topics are just that. Discussing these items erodes the integrity of the Agenda, taking time away from discussing other, more important Agenda items. Ending discussion: Supporting Robert's Rules of Order requires Council Members to respect "Any member who wishes to force an end to debate must first obtain the floor by being duly recognized to speak by the chair, and must then move the Previous Question. Such a motion must be seconded, and then adopted by a two-thirds vote (4 out of 5), or by unanimous consent. No further discussion on the topic is to take place." Robert's Rules must be properly applied to be effective. Motions: Motions should be made clearly and concisely. Look to the Manager's recommendation section of the Agenda Item to aid in making motions. This will not only save time in presenting the motion, but also aids the City Clerk in capturing the correct language. 2 More information needed: From time to time, City Council may have questions and/or need additional information before being able to vote on an item that cannot be obtained at the meeting. In this case, the Council should request to have that additional information brought back at a future meeting before voting on the matter. To save time, City Council must narrow the scope of the needed information to the extent practical. The Council can choose from among these options: 1. Delegate an item in question to Staff and/or a Board to come back to a future meeting with more information/ answers on the topic. Once delegated, no further discussion on the topic should take place. (Majority vote to delegate the task.) 2. Determine if the topic is in need of a Workshop that would involve Council Member/Staff/Community input. Once determined, no further discussion on the topic should take place. A majority vote is required to hold a Workshop. Additionally, respect should be given to the number of Workshops being requested as they will impact Staff & Council Member time and productivity. If it becomes evident that an item cannot be fully addressed during the current meeting due to more information needed, there is no point in continuing discussion which extends the length of the meeting. Decisiveness: Recognize that Council, Staff and the Public benefit from clear, well- stated decisions, which show unequivocal direction. Not giving clear direction could result in: • Topics needing to be re -addressed at future meetings and/or lengthen the current meeting. • Inefficient use of Staff time and resources. • Can cause unnecessary budgetary expenditures. • Can be a poor reflection on the professionalism of local government. Acceptance: Accept actions taken by the City Council graciously and move on. Individual Council Members may disagree with the actions taken by Council but the actions taken by Council should be respected. Continuing debate after the Council has taken action, extends the length of meetings. 3 Late -revealed information: New, unexpected, important information is occasionally brought to light during a Council meeting. While sometimes this can happen unintentionally, Council Members who have the knowledge beforehand, should make every effort to ensure that this important information is brought up with Staff well before the Council meeting. This is so that Council and Staff can evaluate the new information and/or Council can be properly advised. Doing so ensures that the organization can function properly as a team by being prepared with timely, appropriate and accurate responses. When new, important, unexpected information is revealed during a Council meeting that could have been brought up beforehand with Staff: • It can give the impression of not being transparent. • If the City Manager is unaware that a member of Staff will be needed to respond to late -revealed information, that Staff Member may not be in attendance. • It can delay responses to a future meeting. • It can leave the City Manager/Staff and Council at a disadvantage. • It can lead to Council and Staff feeling undermined. • It can erode Public Trust. Public Comment: Community input is important. However, Council should not When a Council Member responds to a Public Comment, it can establish a precedent that other Public Commenters feel compelled to respond to public comments. This is a "receive only" portion of the meeting. can expect to receive Council Member responses, extending the meeting length. When a member of the Public is allowed to exceed the The Mayor/Chair has the responsibility to allotted three minutes, it can establish a precedent that limit public comment to the allotted three other Pubic Commenters should be allowed to exceed the minutes and/or move on from repeated topics. allotted three minutes, extending the meeting length. Managing large attendance: City Council and Staff recognize that a large group of Occasionally, large groups appear for people appearing at a Council meeting indicates that the primarily one topic. The Mayor/Chair has Public has been moved to action and is an indicator of the following options for handling large ' groups: the weight of the Council's coming decision. However, a large group can dominate the time allotted 1. Determine if multiple people share the same opinion. Request that they delegate one representative to for the meeting. A statement by the Mayor/Chair stating that he/she sees speak at the lectern within the 3- and acknowledges the group publically is a respectful way minute timeframe. to honor their presence and time while preparing them 2. As individuals approach the lectern, the Mayor/Chair should request they acknowledge they share the same opinion as previous speakers, not restate anything and only bring for the reality that City Council must act practically and hold a professional City -business meeting. Note: The Council Chambers has a maximum occupancy of 80 people. If occupancy exceeds 80, CFR/BCSO are new thoughts and ideas forward. authorized to escort attendees out of the Chambers which may disrupt the meeting. 4 3. Adjust public speaking time (to less than 3 minutes per speaker). 4. Move public speaking time later on the Agenda to allow time for planned or more critical business - related Agenda Items for Council discussion. If a Council Member is aware that a larger than normal attendance is expected, please give Staff a heads -up. This allows Staff to prepare for the meeting differently. (Set -out a larger number of speaker cards/pens/Agendas, give up Staff seating/parking for attendees, set-up lobby with AV technology for overflow, etc.) 5