TITLE
Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare an amendment to the Council Rules contained in the Long Beach Municipal Code to allow all committee members to add items to committee agendas for consideration before their committees.
DISCUSSION
Currently, all Council Members may add items to the agenda for consideration before Council, but only the chair of council committees may do so for committees, This practice discourages the usage of the committee system in --Long Beachcrmtpre~eaten;on-stderatiurram:hetiberc " extensive use of the committee system would allow.
Long Beach Municipal Code Section 2.03.060 currently contains the Council Rules pertaining to committees. It states that the Council shall establish the committees, the Mayor shall appoint the committee members and the chairs, and that the chairs call for meetings as needed. However, the code is silent as to who can add item$totheagenda ofacommitteemeeting.lnthe absence of any explicit provision, the historic practice has been to only allow the chair to add agenda items for consideration.
All committee members should be able to add items for consideration before their respective committees, in the same way that all Council Members can currently add items to the agenda to be considered by the whole Council. Such a practicewould be more inclusive while encourage substantive discussion and consideration to be conducted at the committee level.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no significant cost for this action.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
Councilmember James Johnson, Seventh District
Councilmember Suja Lowenthal, Second District
Councilmember Patrick O'Donnell, Fourth District