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Consideration of amendments to the 2024 Common Council meeting calendar
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Submitted by:
Jim Archambo, City Administrator
Steve Braatz, City Clerk
Department:
Administration & City Clerk
A. Issue
On July 2, 2024 the Common Council adopted an ordinance modifying Secs. 2.02.070, 2.02.100, 2.02.120, and 2.24.030 of the Wauwatosa Municipal Code. These modifications, among other things, relate to the meeting dates and times of the Common Council and Council standing committees and enable the Common Council to set its meeting calendar via resolution.
As a result, staff have developed a prototype meeting calendar for the remainder of 2024 which reflects the flexibility that the recent ordinance adoption created as it relates to the accommodation of the frequency and duration of meetings in recent years. This is not to diminish the overall quantity or quality of committee and council work but to organize it more effectively. This is a first draft for the committee to consider and modify as it sees fit.
B. Background/Options
Some benefits of the proposed calendar include 6:30 PM start times for Common Council meetings, additional opportunities for discussion at the committee level, and greater flexibility to move meetings around holidays and elections. More specifically, this model provides Council members with opportunities for attending meetings of committees on which they don’t serve, if desired.
For reference when reviewing the draft calendar, attached in this legislative file is a chart detailing the meeting occurrences and cancellations of the Council standing committees, Plan Commission, Board of Public Works, Common Council, and Committee of the Whole from 2018 through 2024.
On a related note, there were fifteen Common Council meetings without a public hearing on the agenda in 2023. The average time of those meetings was 36.7 minutes, however, two of those fifteen meetings were over two hours in duration. Removing those two meetings from the calculation, the average duration of a Common Council meeting in 2023 without a public hearing was 21.8 minutes. Separately, there were seven Common Council meetings in 2023 with at least one public hearing on the agenda. The average duration of those meetings was 38.9 minutes.
So far in 2024, there have been eight Common Council meetings without a public hearing, with an average duration of 39.9 minutes. There have been two meetings in 2024 with at least one public hearing on the agenda, lasting 39 minutes and 86 minutes.
While the length of Common Council varies greatly based on public hearings and the nature of other items on the agenda, it is reasonable to expect that with one Common Council meeting per month, the average duration will increase to approximately 1-1.25 hours. However, this may be shortened if greater committee meeting attendance and discussion is achieved.
Lastly, a final item for consideration as it relates to meeting frequencies may be committee functions and assignments, both at present and as the Council approaches a reduction in membership in 2026.
C. Recommendation
Staff would like to present the committee with a prototype Common Council meeting calendar for the remainder of 2024, reflective of the recently adopted ordinance, for consideration and discussion.