Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER APPROVING AN UPDATED CITY COUNCIL POLICY NO. 1.02.03 RELATED TO SEATING ON THE DAIS AND ANY PHOTOGRAPHY OR VIDEOGRAPHY OF THE CITY COUNCIL (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
This item is on the agenda at the request of Mayor Davis-Holmes and transmits a request from the Mayor for the City Council to consider updating City Council Policy (“CCP”) No. 1.02.03 related to photography and videography of the City Council and to update the language of the CCP, as it relates to seating, to be consistent with previous direction of the City Council.
Current CCP 1.02.03
The current version of CCP 1.02.03 sets forth the seating arrangement on the dais as follows:
“When looking at the dais from the public podium, the Council seats will be considered numbered from left to right, numbers one through five. Designated seat numbers were determined for the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. The Mayor will always sit in seat number three and the Mayor Pro Tem will always sit in seat number four.”
The CCP further states:
“Seat numbers one, two and five will be decided on by the City Council every two years, in the month of January, every time the City Council selects the Mayor Pro Tem by a majority vote of the Council. This is consistent with Section 302(C) of the City Charter.”
At its meeting on February 6, 2020, the City Council approved the following motion (however, the CCP was not updated):
“When looking at the dais from the public podium, the Council seats will be considered numbered from left to right, numbers one through five. Designated seats will be determined for the Mayor and the Mayor Pro Tem. The Mayor will always sit in seat number three. The Mayor Pro Tem will choose between seat number two or seat number four. The City Council will decide the seating arrangements for seat number one, seat number two, and seat number four as applicable,” which was accepted by the seconder of the motion.
Also, on February 6, 2020, the City Council voted to rescind the process of designating the seating by seniority, which was a process put in place in January 2019.
Proposed CCP 1.02.03
The proposed updates to CCP 1.02.03 (included as Exhibit 2) incorporate the direction of the City Council from the February 6, 2020, meeting as noted above, and add language designating that the official standing positions for any photography or videography of the City Council shall match the seating arrangement on the dais, with the Mayor occupying the middle/primary space.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
APPROVE the Mayor’s recommendation to ADOPT the Revised City Council Policy No. 1.02.03 (attached as Exhibit No. 3), if desired.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE any other action the City Council deems appropriate that is consistent with the requirements of the law.
IV. BACKGROUND
See redline and clean versions of the proposed changes to CCP 1.02.03 attached as Exhibits 2 and 3.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
There would be no direct fiscal impact associated with this staff report as it relates only to the proposed changes to CCP 1.02.03.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. CCP 1.02.03 (current) (pg. 3)
2. CCP 1.02.03 (redline) (pg. 4)
3. CCP 1.02.03 (clean, proposed) (pg. 5)
Prepared by: Office of the Mayor