City Council Meeting Date: February 4, 2025
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Lynette Peterson, City Clerk
Title
Consider Amendments to Council Rules of Business and Appendices.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council approves a resolution to approve the amendments to the attached Council Rules of Business and related Appendices going into effect February 18, 2025.
Summary Report:
The City Council conducts an annual review of the Council Rules of Business and related Appendices, making amendments as needed. These were updated on January 7, 2025, however, due to technical challenges with the Granicus VoteCast system, staff is recommending the following changes to the Rules of Business to discontinue use of the VoteCast system starting with the February 18, 2025 meeting. The renewal of fee to continue this additional optional feature is coming due. Therefore, the timing is appropriate to determine whether we continue working to resolve issues or consider discontinuing at this time.
The VoteCast system was implemented just over two years ago, and since then, staff has been working closely with Granicus to address various issues with the software. The City has faced challenges, including login problems for council members, instances where members were unable to vote on items, and the system's inability to keep pace with the flow of motions, seconds, and meeting votes. Additionally, due to concerns about ADA compliance with electronic voting, particularly the need to verbally call out votes for screen readers, the software has not been streamlining meetings as originally expected. Overall, the VoteCast software has not been functioning as efficiently as staff had hoped.
Staff is recommending returning to the Open Public Comment format, with a 20-minute time limit. Public comment would continue to be restricted to items not listed on the current regular agenda. Additionally, residents would only be allowed to comment on the same topic once every 90 days. A redline version of the updates is attached. The following changes/amendments are proposed:
1. Under City Council Meetings, changing the name of Council Listening Sessions back to the terminology “Open Public Comment.” This is the common language used for cities that integrate this into their meetings versus the “listening session” concept. The original idea was that the City would have an actual separate meeting for this listening session. However, there were various reasons why it remained integrated in the actual meeting itself. Therefore, due to the integration to the meeting and common language for cities for comment staff is suggesting to amend the language.
2. Under Meeting Agenda, changing the name of Council Listening Session to Open Public Comment.
3. Under Meeting Agenda, taking out “electronic” before Vote. With discontinuing VoteCast, a voice vote will now be taken. If all are aye, a roll call vote is not needed. If one or more Council Members vote nay, a roll call vote will be taken by all Council Members.
4. Under Citizen Participation, change the title of Council Listening Session to Open Public Comment.
5. In Appendix C: Public Participation Guide, change the title Council Listening Session to Open Public Comment.
6. In Appendix E: Listening Guidelines, change all references to Council Listening Sessions to Open Public Comment and/or Open Public Comment period.
Under these amended rules, there is still opportunity for the Mayor as chair to interject opportunities for questions to be answered or to recess the meeting for follow up with those who speak before continuing the remaining items of the meeting agenda.
Staff is continuing to evaluate options for more public listening opportunities and 2-way communication for meaningful feedback on policy-making. However, we are limited in regular meetings to do this due to the primary duty to complete actions at regular meetings that are under the policy role of the City Council. We are planning on adding future discussions on other opportunities to initiate public participation and feedback into the policy development of the City through the upcoming strategic planning work at the March worksession. We anticipate this will be a priority area for council discussion in the upcoming year.
Alternative Options:
A. The Council could leave the Council Rules of Business as is and not amend and the current Rules of Business would remain in place. The full Council Rules of Business are attached for your information.
B. Approve motion but leaving the language of “listening session” in the terminology used.
Financial Impacts:
The current renewal rate for VoteCast for April 1, 2025-March 31, 2026 is $3,079.03. The City would save this amount by discontinuing the VoteCast system.
Tentative Timelines:
• February 4, 2025 -Council approves Rules of Business amendments
• February 18, 2025 - Council Rules of Business goes into effect