The Everett City Council on Wednesday night made two changes to the way it gets things done, which should limit surprises for the public and the council members while preserving and even enhancing protections for keeping its meetings open to the public and its operations transparent.
The first was simple and earned unanimous support. The council will now meet for an annual retreat early in January to set the general course for the year, make assignments for ad hoc committees and adopt goals. The retreat would be open to the public and would be held within the city limits. It’s not a new idea for councils and other government boards to schedule such retreats, but an annual retreat should be useful to the city council and informative for the public.
The second, following a 4-3 vote, restores the council’s standing subcommittees for budget and finance, public safety and general government. For the last five years, the council has met as a committee of the whole, meaning all matters were brought before the entire council prior to any decision. It’s a system in use elsewhere, but of the 10 largest cities in the state with council-mayor forms of government, Everett was the only one using the committee-of-the-whole structure.
Under the new system, subcommittees of three council members will meet just prior to regular council meetings for reports and discussion of some of the larger issues before the city. Except for executive sessions, such as those related to real estate, the meetings will be open to the public and will be advertised in advance. The public will be able to comment during the regular meeting but not during the committee meetings.
Council member Paul Roberts, who introduced the measure to restore the subcommittees — and, for the record, advocated the committee-of-the-whole system five years ago — has noted recent issues and information that have surprised one or more council members. Most recently, for example, a report regarding downtown parking and the county’s plans for its courthouse, caused the council to call for more time to consider the issue and the county to reconsider its own plans.
“The intent is for the council to have the ability to vet issues and have that dialogue,” Roberts told his fellow council members Wednesday night.
Before the change, council members were having to operate as subcommittees of one, gathering information on their own but prohibited from talking with others on the council except at an official meeting. Council members may now have to take some additional care not to violate the open public meetings law, but that requirement already was there. The city’s attorney says the new structure can comply with the open meetings act.
With the change, a subcommittee — and the rest of the council if they want to attend but not participate — can hear a staff report or get other information and discuss it, prior to the matter coming to the whole council.
The change could mean a longer day for council members, but it should improve the flow of information and allow for better-informed decisions.
While the decision was split, at least two of those dissenting, Jeff Moore and Scott Murphy, said they would embrace the new structure if adopted. We’ll take that as a commitment from the entire council that it wants the best information available to it and wants the public to share in those details.
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