EVERETT — Recent policy proposals have caught some members of the Everett City Council off guard, prompting one councilman to propose a return to council committees.
Paul Roberts said that the council often doesn’t have much of a role in crafting legislation and doesn’t see policy proposals until city staff members present them for discussion and a vote.
For most of the simpler and more routine proposals the council takes up, that works well, Roberts said. But when complex proposals come to the council, members have to get up to speed quickly before a scheduled vote.
Some of those issues have proved controversial. A series of measures addressing a budget deficit, for example, drew criticism from the public and some council members because new taxes and fees were emphasized over cuts in expenditures.
And recent ordinances to address the behavior of some homeless people have been met with resistance, with one anti-panhandling ordinance recently rejected after a contentious late-night meeting.
“There’s clearly work being done, but the council isn’t engaged in that work,” Roberts said Wednesday. “We don’t see it until it comes to us as a proposal.”
“The expectation of the public is that we’ve been engaged in the development of the policy when we have not,” he added.
Roberts and other council members have been asking for a review of the council’s structure and relationship to the city staff since the budget balancing process last year.
Councilman Jeff Moore suggested Wednesday that the council consider the proposal over the next several weeks rather than rush to action.
Moore agreed in principle, however, that the council could be better informed of pending policy proposals. “Time between our access to this information and our decision really needs to be improved,” he said.
Roberts was council president five years ago when committees were eliminated as part of an effort to develop new council procedures and comply with the state Open Public Meetings Act.
Now the common practice has city staff briefing the entire council during a meeting, with a bill proposal following shortly thereafter. A final vote often can come within three weeks of the initial presentation.
Under that structure, Roberts said, the city staff is very good at answering all the council’s questions. But the Open Public Meetings Act prohibits most communication among council members outside of their meetings. As a result, each member operates in isolation of the others.
Roberts researched the 20 largest cities in Washington and found that Everett was the only city with a mayor-council form of government that did not have a subcommittee structure to help formulate legislation.
Even some cities in which a city manager reports to a city council have subcommittees to help craft policy, he said.
The challenge will be to develop a structure that is in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act and collaborates with the city staff, but which gives the council a more active role in developing legislation, Roberts said.
“It seems to me that the legislative body needs to be engaged earlier in the process,” he said.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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