08-10-2015 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, July 27, 2015 7:00 o’clock p.m. __________________________________________________________________________________ Page 25 of 29 15. POLICY FOR CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS (continued) McMillan stated the desired outcome is not to create an unhealthy environment which can undermine the City’s productivity. McMillan noted one of her goals at Mayor was to be efficient and productive and not be sidetracked with drama. McMillan stated the Park and Planning Commissions could also adopt it. Printup stated he is not so much in favor of the policy portion and that in his view it is more of a personality conflict rather than citizen oriented issues, which in his view can be worked out informally. Printup noted the City Council has Robert’s Rules of Order available, which could be utilized more. Printup stated he would prefer to call it spirited debate and that talking about the issue gets it out in the open and brings attention to potential drama. Printup stated he would rather focus on the agenda piece. Levang stated in her view there needs to be formal rules of decorum and that the Council meetings in the last six months have not gone well and that the Council gets off track and is not as productive as they could be. Levang stated she does not see this as strictly personalities and that it is about rules not being followed and disrespect and incivility. Levang stated in her view the City needs a decorum policy. Levang stated what Wayzata and Lake Elmo have done are in the spirit of having a good process that everyone can adhere to and provides good accountability around those processes. Levang stated she has not been happy with the way the meetings have been going for the past six months and that it negatively impacts staff and residents as well as how the Council functions. Cornick stated he would not be opposed to having a policy as long as there is also a means to enforce it. Without a way to enforce it, it is worthless. Cornick stated the other issue is if the City Council does develop a policy and a means to enforce it, it should be in effect at the end of an election year so it begins with the election of the new Council and not immediately. Cornick stated in the meantime there could perhaps be some guidelines in effect. Walsh stated if the policy gets in the way of freedom of speech and being able to talk about what is going on, that would be an issue. Walsh stated as it relates to how to get stuff on the agenda, the City Administrator was against being too formal. Walsh stated he would be open to a formal policy if the City Administrator was open to it as well in terms of how that would function. Walsh stated formal policies could be a slippery slope and that he is not sure how the policies would be enforced. Walsh stated it is difficult to define incivility, which could be incivility to Council members or incivility to people at the microphone.