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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 07141998 - D8 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Co�1�1'a 1 FROM: SUPERVISOR JOE CANCIAMILLA - '� o to Count ,DATE: June 30, 1998 a n SUBJECT: PROPOSED CHANCES IN BOARD PROCEDURES SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION Implement the following changes in Board procedures effective with the September 1, 1998 Board meeting: 1. BEGIN all Beard meetings at 9:00 A.M. There will no longer be a "late„ meeting beginning at 12:00 Noon. 2. AUTHORIZE the County Administrator to schedule multiple short items at the same time to insure that there are not large blocks of time when there is nothing the Board can legally consider, as, for instance, when a hearing is canceled and there is nothing else scheduled for perhaps 30 minutes. It is, however, important to be sensitive to the needs of the public so that not so many items are scheduled at the same time that people must wait an unreasonable length of time for their item. 3. SCHEDULE closed sessions of the Board at 9:00 A.M. on the first, third and fourth Tuesdays of the month, as needed. These closed sessions should be held to no more than 30 minutes. 4. SCHEDULE a more extended closed session on the first Tuesday of the month, to begin at 12:00 Noon with no other business scheduled thereafter. This large block of time can be used for extended issues such as labor negotiations. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT; YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE O R r SIGNATURE(S),: ACTION OF BOARD 7YTHE OTHER r IT IS BOARD ORDERED T1 AT THIS MATTER IS CONTINUED to be placed on the agenda by Supervisor Canciamilla when appropriate; DIRECTED the County Administrator's Office to facilitate resolution of differences on the matter. VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS(ASSENT ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN, ATTESTED . . ContacMembers, Board of Supervisors IL BAT HELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF cc' County Administrator SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Department Heads {Via GAC}} BY fA DEPUTY t 5. SCHEDULE closed sessions on the third and fourth Tuesdays of the month from 12:00 Noon to 1:00 P.M., on an as needed basis. 5. SCHEDULE presentations, including employee service awards, at 9:30 A.M. on the first, third and fourth Tuesdays of the month. CONTINUE the existing policy limiting presentations to no more than five minutes each and no more than three presentations per week. (See attached policy adopted by the Board on May 19, 1998). 7. SCHEDULE items such as abandoned vehicle appeal hearings, nuisance abatement hearings, consideration of street lighting charge, water service charge and other Proposition 218 hearings, non-controversial fee schedule hearings and similar items between 9:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. on the second Tuesday of each month. 8. AGREE that a supplemental agenda is something that should be prepared only under the most unusual circumstances, and DIRECT the County Administrator to get the approval of the Chair before preparing a supplemental agenda. 9. RESERVE, to the extent possible, the following blocks of time for land use and similar hearings involving the Community Development Department, with the understanding that the County Administrator can adjust this schedule as necessary to accommodate other workshop type of presentations: 11:00 A.M. - 12:00 Noon and 1:00 P.M. - 3:00 P.M. - second Tuesday 1:00 P.M. - 3:00 P.M. - third Tuesday 1:00 P.M. - 3:00 P.M. - fourth Tuesday 10. AGREE. that items removed from the Consent Calendar for discussion should be limited to five minutes each, and AUTHORIZE the Chair, at his or her discretion, to reschedule such discussions to the end of the agenda or to a future date, where feasible, when it appears that the discussion will exceed five minutes. 11. AGREE that the adoption of proclamations and other similar items listed under "Honors and Proclamations"on the Consent Calendar willLlQt be removed to make a Presentation. AGREE that if an item is intended to include a presentation it should be identified as such when it is submitted to the Clerk of the Board so adequate time can be allowed for the presentation. 12. AGREE that Short Discussion items are intended to be completed in five minutes each, and AUTHORIZE the Chair, at his or her discretion, to reschedule such discussions to the end of the agenda or to a future date, where feasible, when the number of speaker cards or other information indicates that a Short Discussion item will consume substantially more than five minutes. 13. A. AGREE that it is helpful for Board members to observe the same deadline as is imposed on staff for the submission of agenda items, generally Thursday 12:00 Noon twelve days before the Board meeting, and -2- B. AGREE that for items that will require a substantial block of time it is important to consult with the County Administrator's Office as far in advance as possible to insure that an adequate amount of time can be reserved for an item, and C. AGREE that, in any case, items which come from Board members after 5:00 P.M. on the Tuesday before the Board meeting and are not Consent Calendar items w[III not be listed for the fallowing Tuesday unless the Chair see some compelling reason why an exception should be made in an unusual situation. 14. RECOGNIZE that while staff do their best to anticipate where an item should be placed on the agenda, given the amount of time it is likely to take, staff are not always aware of factors of which Board members may be aware which will influence the amount of time an item will require. In cases where a Board member is aware of such factors and believes that the draft agenda does not properly reflect the amount of time that will be required, AGREE to contact the County Administrator's Office on the Wednesday afternoon before the Board meeting to suggest that more time be allowed for an item. 15. If an item is to be carried over to a future agenda for other than the Consent Calendar, AGREE to request the County Administrator to immediately review the pending agendas for future dates and recommend a date and time when time will permit the item to be heard. 15. AUTHORIZE the County Administrator to arrange for moving the box for Speaker Cards to a more prominent location where it is easier for the general public to see it and where removing cards and delivering them to the Clerk will not require walking in front of a speaker at the podium. BACKGROUND: We have had enough experiences in the past several months that we should all be convinced that something has to be done to modify the procedures for preparation of the Board agenda and for conducting the Board meeting. We have had Short Discussion items that have taken an hour and one-half. We have had presentation items that have taken 35 minutes. We have had items that appeared to staff to only require 15 minutes take over an hour. We have had Consent items pulled off for a discussion that took the better part of an hour. All of these situations result in delays for the general public who have shown up at the appointed time for an item, only to have to wait for one, two or three hours. In some cases we have had to reschedule items to a later date because we were running so far behind schedule. I would like to try making some changes in the Board procedure for receiving and scheduling agenda items to see whether we can do a better job of hearing the vast majority of items at the time they are scheduled to be heard, even if that means that some items need to be placed at the end of the agenda or need to be rescheduled to a later date. Implementation of these recommendations will make the standard sequence of meetings for a month look like this. - - TIME FIRST SECOND THIRD FOURTH TUESDAY TUESDAY TUESDAY TUESDAY 0:00 A.M. Convene and Hearings Convene and Convene and adjourn to closed Building Insp. adjourn to closed adjourn to closed session Public Works session session Sheriff 0:30 A.M. Public Session - Fees, etc Public Session - Public Session Presentations Presentations Presentations 9:40 A.M. Regular Business Regular Business Regular Business 11:00 A.M. Land Use Hearings* 12:00 Noon Closed Lunch Closed Closed Session Break Session Session 1:00 P.M. Land Use Land Use Hearings Hearings 3:00 P.M. Adjourn Adjourn Adjourn Adjourn * Hearings may be scheduled earlier if it is clear that the morning hearings will finish early. I urge that we approve these recommendations. if we find that there are problems when some of these recommendations are implemented we can always modify them. TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS t...;• SUPERVISOR MARK DeSAULNIER YContra FROM: SUPERVISOR JOE CANCIAM#LLA n+� � � Osla County DATE: May 14, 1998 �$�.....r.. SUBJECT: GUIDELINES FOR PLACING "PRESENTATION" ITEMS ON THE BOARD AGENDA SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(s)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: , ADOPT the following guidelines for placing "Presentation" items on the Board agenda: 1. Each Presentation item should take no longer than five minutes unless special arrangements are made in advance with the agenda coordinator in the County Administrator's Office. 2. Presentations should be of County-wide Interest or impact. Presentations or proclamations of local Interest should be placed on the Consent Calendar. 3. In an effort to keep the agenda on schedule, there generally should be no more than three Presentation items a week so that they can aff be completed in approximately 15-20 minutes. The decision to include more than three Presentation items should be made by the County Administrator's Office. 4. One contact person should be Identified by the organization, department staff, or Board Member when asking to place a Presentation Items on the Board agenda so the agenda coordinator in the County Administrator's Office is aware of the details of the Presentation, can insure that staff are aware of these guidelines, and can brief the Chair regarding who should be recognized and what will take place. This contact person will be responsible for Insuring that these guidelines are adhered to. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: -.YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMM E APPROVE £}7'HER ")C��«.�.... a SIGNATURE(S),,- MARK DeSAULNIER CANCIAMILLA ACTION OF BOARD ON May 19, 190 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER I hereby certify that this is t#ut and Larrelct copy of an action taken and enlerW *A fMet Nnutes of the Board of Supem on 1M+Ii1lr4 rW1YL ATTESTED: U!= J -�, ( 9?.L PHIL 9cH R MrwM waw cwt of the Board of Supar+r sm&W C4u*Adm(n£atreltor By VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS(ASSENT } AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES. NOES; AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ASSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. Members, C� �+ ATTESTED_ May 19, �. CatttBCt: Members, Board { Supervisors 998 PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF CC: County Administrator SUPERVISGPS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR All County Department Heads {Via CAO} BY ,DEPUTY 5. All requests to place Presentation items on the Board agenda should be directed to the agenda coordinator in the County Administrator's Office, rather than the Clerk of the Board. 6. Department staff who are coordinating presentation items through a Board member's Office are asked to also contact the agenda coordinator in the County Administrator's office as soon as it is decided to request that a Presentation be scheduled to insure that there is time available on the requested agenda. 7. As is true with the time limits on other speakers, each speaker on a Presentation item should keep his/her comments to no more than three minutes. 8. staff and Board Members are asked to schedule Presentation items as far in advance as possible to insure that time is reserved on the requested agenda whenever possible. 9. Board Members and their staff are also asked to comply fully with these guidelines. BACKGROUND: Recently, we have become concerned at the number and length of presentation items which are listed on the agenda and sat the length of individual Presentations. Recently, it was 11:30 A.M. before the Board had completed all of the presentation items and was ready to consider other substantive business. We believe that adoption of these guidelines will assist the County Administrator's Office to control the number and length of Presentation items, including those which come from Board members. -2-