MORGANTOWN – As part of Tuesday’s agenda, Morgantown City Council is expected to take up amendments to its Rules and Procedures for Meetings regarding the format of council’s monthly committee of the whole sessions.
The body discussed the changes during a February work session.
Held the last Tuesday of each month, committee of the whole meetings are intended as planning sessions during which council hears presentations from outside agencies or members of city staff, and moves items forward for consideration at an upcoming regular meeting.
Under the proposed changes, the meetings would be conducted as “workshops” on specific issues broken into three segments – a one-hour public input session, a council discussion period, and an introduction of the next topic.
The format would move topics through that process – from introduction, to public input, to council workshop – over a three-month period.
For example, fiscal stability would be introduced as the next topic of discussion as the final portion of a workshop. The following month, fiscal stability would be the subject of the public input session. Then, with the public input received, city administration and members of council would come back with talking points, potential policy changes and action items for council’s discussion on the issue in month three.
In recent months, council has held multiple discussions on the various formats cities use to introduce and evaluate legislation before moving it forward for adoption.
Council’s initial conversations focused on the creation of subcommittees within the seven-member body, but consensus was ultimately reached to revamp the committee of the whole format.
“It was not so much about moving away from the current [committee of the whole] format. I don’t think anyone took any real issue with the structure of those meetings as they are now. It was about trying to work in more time for council as a whole to discuss policy options that we want to bring forward,” Mayor Danielle Trumble said. “As it stands, committee of the whole meetings are presentations from outside partner groups and agencies, or city staff presenting on different things. There were not a whole lot of options for a single councilor to say, ‘This is an ordinance or a change that I would like to see us make. Let’s talk about it.’”
Trumble said council was deliberate in wanting to set aside a portion of the meeting for the public to weigh in on the various topics.
“We represent the public and any idea that we come up with, I know I personally want to get feedback on it,” Trumble said. “So if we’re talking about housing options or business incentives or whatever the topic may be, someone has the ability to watch the meeting, talk about it and come back during a following public comment period on that and give their thoughts as we move forward on those things.”
While it’s traditionally been council’s practice to only move items forward for consideration at a regular meeting after they’ve been raised at a committee of the whole session, that is not a requirement.
“Council’s rules that we set and adopt for ourselves currently say new items will generally be considered first during a committee of the whole, but that has definitely not even always been the case as long as I’ve been on council,” Trumble said. “That’s just kind of a general guideline, not a rule. I think we do a pretty good job of making sure people are aware of what’s coming up … But if something is not discussed at committee of the whole – even if it’s during one of our regular council meetings – we will still make sure that the presentation and discussion happens as it always has.”
