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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-11-13 - AGENDA REPORTS - AGENDA PACKET DISTRIBUTION (2)NEW BUSINESS DATE: SUBJECT: DEPARTMENT: Agenda Item: Ib CITY OF SANTA CLARITA AGENDA REPORT City Manager Approval Item to be presented by: November 13, 2012 mow. Jennifer Curtis DISTRIBUTION OF CITY COUNCIL AGENDA PACKETS City Manager's Office RECOMMENDED ACTION City Council review the distribution schedule for City Council meeting agendas and approve the continuation of the current schedule. BACKGROUND At the September 11, 2012, regular City Council meeting, Councilmember Boydston asked to agcndize to a future meeting discussion of the timing of the agenda packet distribution for City Council meetings and proposed changing the distribution to two weeks prior to those meetings. In accordance with Government Code 54957.5, the agenda and all backup material is available as a public record once it is distributed to all or a majority of the legislative body. City Council agenda packets currently are distributed and made public on the Thursday prior to Tuesday's Council meeting giving Councilmembers and members of the public five calendar days to review this information. Councilmember Boydston requested the timing be changed so that agenda materials are instead distributed two weeks prior to Council meetings. A review of the practices in place at Santa Clarita's ten benchmark cities show that our current schedule is consistent with that used by other agencies. More specifically, eight of the benchmark cities publish the agenda four to five days prior to the City Council meeting and two produce it six days prior. No cities have a two-week lead time. In addition, our current practice exceeds the Brown Act's requirement that materials for City Council meetings be made public at least 72 hours prior to those meetings. By changing the agenda packet distribution period from five to 14 days prior to a Council meeting, the efficiency of the current process would be reduced and a range of areas would be p,,���O1H affected including: • The slowing and reduced efficiency of City business including: • A delay in the time it would take for staff to bring back items that Council had requested be agendized to a future Council meeting. The proposed timing would create a delay of approximately four weeks or two Council meetings. The ability of staff to expediently bring before Council issues that are unfolding thereby potentially delaying items for discussion, review, and action. A delay in entitlement processing. Planning projects that are required to go to the Planning Commission as part of the public hearing process would be delayed in moving forward to the City Council by three to four weeks resulting in a six to eight week delay depending on the months between hearings. Currently, it is possible depending on specific months, to provide a one month turn around between hearings. • Payments to vendors would take a minimum of two weeks longer as a result of the additional time required to place items on future agendas. An increase in the number of agenda items that may have changes after being published as a result of the additional length of time that they would need to be submitted prior to a meeting. With the proposed 14 -day agenda distribution schedule, the internal deadline for submitting agenda items would back-up from two weeks prior to the Council meeting to four weeks prior. Additional information or details related to the agenda item may occur in the four-week timeframe thereby requiring a change to the agenda report or related materials after it has already been submitted. Staff workload would be impacted as employees would be required to prepare and distribute an agenda packet at the same time they are preparing for a Council meeting. Both represent major work efforts which would be challenging to try and complete at the same time. In contrast, the current five-day agenda distribution schedule enables staff to work on agenda packets in one week and then Council meeting preparation and wrap-up in the following week. Publishing agenda items two weeks prior to a meeting would result in the agenda for the next Council meeting being published at a time when the agenda for the current meeting is already circulating. Members of the public may be confused by which items were to be covered at which meetings since two agendas would be published and publicly available at the same time. Some members of the public may attend a Council meeting to speak about an item which will not come before the Council until the next meeting. For the above reasons, it is recommended to continue with the current five-day agenda packet distribution schedule. Any Councilmember who feels he or she needs time to review or learn about an agenda item, may work through the City Manager to receive additional background, information, or explanation. Furthermore, items that require a public hearing or issues of controversy or community concern are on the Council meeting agenda more than once giving both the public and the Council multiple times to discuss these matters. ALTERNATIVE ACTIONS 1) Consider changing the agenda packet distribution from five days to six days prior to City Council meetings. With this schedule, agenda packets would be distributed and publicly available Wednesday before the following Tuesday's City Council meeting providing an additional 24 hours to review materials. 2) Other action as determined by the City Council. FISCAL IMPACT No fiscal impact has been identified by this item. ATTACHMENTS Agenda Packet Distribution at Benchmark Cities Agenda Packet Distribution at Benchmark Cities Benchmark City Agenda Packet Distribution Date Council Meeting Day # of Days Prior to Meeting City of Pasadena Thursday Monday 4 days City of Simi Valley Thursday Monday 4 days City of Burbank Thursday or Friday Tuesday 4-5 days City of Glendale Thursday or Friday Tuesday 4-5 days City of Irvine Thursday or Friday Tuesday 4-5 days City of Lancaster Thursday Tuesday 5 days City of Thousand Oaks Thursday Tuesday 5 days City of Ventura Wednesday Monday 5 days City of Santa Clarita Thursday Tuesday 5 days City of Oxnard Wednesday afternoon Tuesday 6 days City of Palmdale lWednesday ITuesday 6 days Summary: Eight of the 10 benchmark cities distribute the agenda packet 4-5 days prior to the City Council meeting while two distribute it 6 days prior to the meeting.