The Common Council is holding an informal organizational meeting at 04/18/2023 at 6PM and then a formal organizational meeting the next day, 04/19/2023 at 6PM.
The informal organizational meeting is an opportunity for the Council members to review the Council Rules and make changes for the upcoming legislative year. They meet first to discuss their thoughts about the rules informally and then will meet again prior to the regularly scheduled 7PM Council meeting on 04/19/2023 to formally discuss and vote on any proposed changes.
It looks like there are 10 proposed changes on the agenda.
1. Alderperson William Siebers (District 10) has proposed discussing and providing some parameters for the aldermanic invocations. [I post all of the invocations, and, from time to time, there have been some readers who expressed dislike for an invocation if it seemed too religious or too political.]
2. Alderpersons Vered Meltzer (District 2) and Nate Wolff (District 4) would like to encourage Council members to work with staff before introducing Resolutions in order to ensure that Resolutions are well-researched and ready for debate. [I think the anti- pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer resolution would have benefited from such a rule.]
3. Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) would like motions to call the question pass if 4/5ths of the present members approve instead of 2/3rds. [I don’t think this is necessary.]
4. Alderperson Doran would like to change the vote to override committee refer-backs to 4/5th instead of 2/3rds. [During the 09/07/2022 Council meeting, around 47 minutes in, Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) had expressed frustration with Council members objecting to refer-backs when there was no critical timing issue and the reason for referring the item back made sense.]
5. Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) would like to schedule regular committee/commission/board meetings 45 minutes apart instead of 1 hour apart. [Note: I misread this originally and thought she wanted to make them 1 hour and 45 minutes apart instead of 45 minutes apart. Making them 45 minutes apart seems like it would really streamline things given that, very often, meetings are not an hour long.]
6. Alderperson Doran would like to change the rules so that the Council President and Vice President are elected by open ballot instead of secret ballot. [I have no idea what to think about this one. I’m curious what the arguments for and against are.]
7. Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) would like to eliminate remote meeting participation. [The alderpersons seem to have mostly been attending in person, but remote attendance seems to be a useful thing if someone needs to go out of town or something and can’t make it in person. At the same time, they’ve been having a lot of technical issues recently, and remote participation seems like a logistical headache.]
8. Alderperson Doran would like to eliminate the rule allowing alderpersons to withdraw resolutions.
9. Alderperson Hartzheim would like to change the rule regarding the withdrawal of resolutions allowing them to still be withdrawn at the committee level but removing the option to withdraw them at Council subject to consent of 2/3rds of the Council members present.
10. Alderperson Doran would like to have the Pledge of Allegiance recited at every committee, board, and commission meeting instead of just at the Council meeting.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1084960&GUID=66D1043C-D875-478A-A9D1-D8E1C65124B7
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