Informational Meeting

MINUTES Tuesday, June 19, 2012 Informational Meeting 4:00 PM at Carnegie Town Hall Sioux Falls City Council 235 West Tenth Street Members Present: Sue Aguilar, Kenny Anderson Jr., James Entenman, Michelle Erpenbach, Greg Jamison, Dean Karsky, Rex Rolfing, and Kermit L. Staggers Members Absent: Mike T. Huether Staff Present: Lorie Hogstad, City Clerk; Tamara Jorgensen, CMC, Assistant City Clerk; and Jim David, Legislative/Operations Manager 1. Call To Order City Council Chair Michelle Erpenbach called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. 2. Staff Report A. Lorie Hogstad, City Clerk Hogstad updated the City Council on remodeling work that will occur in the basement of the Carnegie Town Hall. The small area on the northwest side of the basement will be converted from a storage/transitional area to a usable office space and conference room. This activity will start on June 25, 2012, and will include adding walls, a dropped ceiling and taking down walls that are covering windows on the north side of the building. The roof repairs and the tuck pointing will begin on July 16 and will be a 12 week project. Lead Internal Auditor Rich Oksol introduced Internal Auditor Danette Schumacher at this time. B. Jim David, Legislative/Operations Manager David stated he has been working with Council Members Aguilar and Erpenbach on the distracted driving ordinance. He will be reviewing the three alternative proposals and merging them into one ordinance for review at the July 10, 2012 Public Services Committee Meeting. David updated the City Council on the available timeslots for taping Inside Town Hall and would like to set up 'round table' schedules for the tapings for August or November. He asked the City Council to send him a listing of their available times. David stated he has worked on a variety of projects since his hire date. He has met with all but two City Council Members and is planning to meet with the City Directors. He has conducted research on various topics, has drafted ordinances and has worked with Council Members Jamison and Karsky on setting up the CIP  Committee. Erpenbach stated she has had conversations with Budget Analyst David Bixler regarding the timeline for proposed amendments for items scheduled for the City Council Meetings. Jim David stated it would be preferable to have amendments as soon as possible. 3. Public Services Committee A. Report on meeting held Tuesday, June 12, 2012 Anderson Jr gave an update on the meeting covering the following proposed ordinances: naming rights, distracted driving, concealed weapons and recycling standardization. 4. City Council Open Discussion Don Kearney, Director of Parks and Recreation, provided an update on the South Dakota Jr. Football complex. He stated the complex is under construction and will be completed by August, 2012. Entenman stated that the Sioux Falls Jaycees have now reached their monetary goal for the 4th of July Fireworks display. Entenman stated that the Health Department is moving forward with an aggressive approach to mosquito spraying this summer. Staggers stated he has received feedback and inquiries from the public regarding the 'two question rule'. He stated he has spoken to staff members, other City Council Members and that he has reviewed city ordinances. He cannot find anything about the 'two question rule'. He stated that when he served on the City Council and on the State Senate there was no such thing as a 'two question rule'. He stated he thought this was a custom or habit of the City Council. He asked how a rule can be enforced when there is no 'rule'. Jamison stated that he has also received public feedback regarding this topic and he feels it deserves discussion. Jamison stated that in the past, the limitation to two questions is for the City Council Meetings in a more formal setting. This was designed to ensure that all City Council Members had an opportunity to engage in discussion and ask questions. He stated that the Informational Meeting is a different type of meeting and is set up to be more free flowing and to engage creative thinking, which needs to occur. Jamison stated if the Council Members are asking questions and a Director does not answer the question or does not want to answer in the way it was asked; sometimes the question has to be asked in a different way. Jamison stated that he would hate to see a Council Member limited to two questions if he/she is asking a question and is not getting an answer. Jamison asked that the members note that Council Members may have additional questions to ask, and that it is appropriate to take a moment to yield the floor to allow other members an opportunity to ask questions. Jamison stated that he does not know of a 'two question rule' that was adopted by the Council for the Informational Meeting but that those are Roberts Rules for the 7:00 p.m. City Council Meeting. Staggers stated that in Roberts Rules of Order, the ‘two question rule’ applies to formal debate and stated that the 7:00 p.m. meeting does not have formal debate. Erpenbach provided clarification on the topic. During the 4:00 p.m. Informational Meeting on June 12, Erpenbach asked Staggers to wait for a few moments until other Council Members had a chance to ask questions. At this time, Staggers had asked 4 questions and asked another 2 before he yielded the floor. After a 2nd round, Council Members Staggers, Jamison, and Anderson Jr. asked additional questions. Erpenbach stated she felt it was a professional, open conversation that, over the past two years, does provide for free flowing movement while also ensuring that the chair has the ability to moderate the flow of questions from all Council Members. Erpenbach advised the City Council that the City Council Procedures book, page 6-3 talks about Parliamentary Procedure and talks about no member speaking twice about a motion until all members have had the opportunity to speak. She stated she understands the dialogue about procedure taken at the City Council Meetings and stated they have taken that a little bit further as a custom among this group. In addition, she stated that the manual reads "The principles of Parliamentary Procedure are to promote courtesy, justice, impartiality and equality by ensuring that everyone is heard". Erpenbach stated that when you choose leadership for this particular Council what you really are doing is choosing someone to facilitate the meetings and to make your jobs easier as Council Members. She is committed to promoting courtesy, justice, impartiality and equality. Staggers asked Erpenbach for clarification on whether or not the City Council has a 'two question rule'. Erpenbach stated there is a policy regarding motions and that the Council has made it their custom to be conscious that there are other members who want to speak. Staggers stated that he would rather follow a rule vs. a custom that others don't seem to know anything about. Erpenbach asked the group for their input on how they wish to proceed in the future regarding questions. Rolfing stated that if it was in writing for the Informational Meeting that this should be the way to abide. That everyone would have the chance to speak or ask questions about an issue and that the Chair would have some privilege in ensuring that this occurs. Aguilar stated what is important is not the number of questions but that the  Council members, in between questions, turn to the Chair and ask for the additional time to speak. This has been the custom with the last two City Council Chairs. She noted that there are going to be agendas/meetings where there are time limitations and this process will give everyone the opportunity to ask additional questions. Karsky stated that part of the custom is to ask 1-2 questions and then turn to the Chair and request the opportunity to ask additional questions. Out of fairness, it should be up to the Chair to decide the order in which to go and that all are allowed time for input. Karsky noted that there are meetings where there are time constraints. Staggers stated that he and other City Council members have asked a lot of questions in the past. He stated that he does not remember there being a case where people wanted to ask a question and were not allowed to. He stated that he does not see that it is any different now than it was during his eight years on the Council. 5. Presentations A. May Financial Report by Tracy Turbak, Director of Finance 4:55 p.m. A recess was taken at this time for the purpose of conducting the Sioux Falls City Council/Minnehaha County Commission Meeting. 5:45 p.m. The Informational Meeting resumed. B. Rate Reviews for Public Works Departments by Mark Cotter, Director of Public Works; Trent Lubbers, Utility Operations Manager; and Dean Borchardt, Business Operations Manager C. Pension Design Study by Bill O'Toole, Director of Human Resources Due to time constraints, this item was deferred to the Informational Meeting on Tuesday, June 26, 2012, at 4:00 p.m. Jamison asked the City Council to take the time to review the information provided and stated this was a very important decision that they would be making. 6. Adjournment Council Chair Michelle Erpenbach adjourned the meeting at 6:53 p.m. Tamara Jorgensen, CMC Assistant City Clerk