02-22-1999 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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TO:Mayor and City Council FROM: DATE; Ron Moorse, City Administrator Februa’7 17,1999 PEB 2 2 1999. SUBJECT: Council/Staff Communication Update v^i I I v^r Meetings have been held with staff to review the ordinance amendment regard!" • Council/slaff communication, and the policy and procedure for addressing concerns raised by employees regarding the administration of the City. The meetings began with a discussion of the roles of the City Council, the City Administrator, and staff; and the importance of an effective Council/staff relationship. Both the Ordinance Amendment and the Administrative Policy revision clarify lines of authority, accountability and communication that enable the Council/staff relationship to work best. One area of discussion at the employee meetings related to the requirement that if a Council member contacts a staff person to obtain information, this information needs to be provided to all Council members (and to the City Administrator if the staff person contacted is other than the City Administrator). The purpose of this is to keep the Council and City Administrator in the communication loop when individual Council members request information from staff, and to ensure all Council members have the same level of information about City activities and issues. The ordinance language regarding Council inquiries does not make any distinctions about when an information request is significant enough to warrant forwarding the information to the Council and the City Administrator. Rather than trying to develop a definition of what is significant and what is not, staff will initially forward to the Council and City Administrator information related to all inquiries received from Council members. This has two benefits. First, the information collected regarding the types of inquiries being made by the Council can be used to develop a definition of what constitutes a significant inquiry. Second, it will provide an indication of the number of inquiries made by Council to staff. The information regarding the types and number of inquiries made by Council will provide an indication of whether Council inquiries are a significant part of staffs workload, and could provide insights into more effective and efficient methods of providing information to the Council. J