City Council - Rules & Government Relations Committee

CITY OF EASTHAMPTON OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL Easthampton Municipal Building 50 Payson Ave., Ste. 100 Easthampton, Massachusetts 01027-2260 Telephone #: (413) 529-1460 MINUTES RULES and GOVERNMENT RELATIONS Meeting 10/22/2020 Attendees: R&GR Committee Members: Councilor Thomas Peake, Chair Councilor Peg Conniff, Clerk Councilor Dan Rist Other Attendees: Homar Gomez, City Councilor Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm. The meeting was recorded. Approval for past minutes. Minutes from 10/1/2020 were approved. MOTION by Councilor Rist; SECOND Councilor Conniff. Passed 3-0. 1. OLD BUSINESS • Ordinance Review Committee discussion • Councilor Peake listed the areas that will require discussion and agreement in or- der to properly proceed with the establishment of this committee. A. Membership - how many? A. How Many B. Criteria C. Councilors? How many? D. Skill sets? • Councilor Conniff felt that 7 members would be a good number. Dan Rist also agreed that 7 would be appropriate or potentially 9 if we included 3 City Coun- cilors. Councilor Peake and Councilor Gomez agreed on 7.  • Councilor Rist felt that with 3 Councilors there would be a better opportunity to get ordinances written more efficiently when being presented to Council. If there were fewer, it may take longer to get a proposal to the council for review. • Councilor Gomez felt that it would be difficult to sit 9 members. The list of appli- cants should be sent to CC President who will choose the make up of the commit- tee. 2-3 Councilors should be included. • Councilor Peake agreed that 7 would be the appropriate size. He felt that larger groups can be great for generating opinions but challenging to arrive at agreement for changes to be proposed. 1-2 Councilors should be included and 4-5 members of the community. Attention should be paid to applicants with Law, anti-bias, so- ciology backgrounds. In general the committee should include people who will help the City Council see things they might not otherwise be looking for. • General agreement that Police Chief Alberti or his designee be on hand to answer questions as to enforceability 2. Scope A. City Ordinances, Zoning and Traffic Rules and Orders? Some or all? • Discussion centered on Ordinances as a priority followed by Traffic Rules and Or- ders. Zoning, it was felt would require a much more technical review and a differ- ent set of expertise and time commitment. • Dan Rist did not want the committee to spend time on things outside the scope of the committee • Councilor Conniff felt that this was a long commitment (1 year) and required a focussed approach. 3. Process A. How will changes to ordinances be made? • Tom Peake envisioned a report from this committee with recommended changes to the City Council. This report can be delivered quarterly or as frequently as the committee finds changes. The volume of changes will likely dictate the frequency or reporting. • It was decided that Tom Peake will put together a page to 2 outlining the recom- mendation for the process. He will plan to introduce it at the 11/18 City Council meeting as a recommendation. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC: Louise Jacob: Anti bias training would be helpful. Look for structural bias. There should be more than 1 person representing different biases (Women, POC, disabled, veterans, etc). Con- sider impact to women, racism, children, stranger bias, Look for a variety of people. Zoning is a major area of concern. Sam Charon: Membership should be broadly advertised. Be clear about what the work of the committee will be. Life experience is needed. Cast a wide net for participants. Don’t overthink the skill set. Concentrate on a robust pool of people who are interested in the work. Kae Collins: Kae asked some clarifying questions around process and membership make-up 7:20pm - Motion to adjourn by Councilor Rist, seconded by Councilor Conniff. Motion passed 3-0 Next Meeting: 10/26/2020 at 5:00 pm