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2022 07 28 WS Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN July 28, 2022 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas, met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday, July 28, 2022, at 5:30 P.M. in the Hullum Conference Room of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Laura Alvarado Council Member Chris Presley Council Member Charles Johnson Mayor Pro Tern Heather Betancourth Council Member Jacob Powell Council Member Mike Lester Council Member Brandon Capetillo Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Scott Lemond City Attorney Angela Jackson City Clerk Mayor Capetillo convened the July 28, 2022, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5:30 P.M., all members were present. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Discuss City Council's Rules of Procedures for governing public participation in the Council meetings. City Manager Rick Davis introduced this item since he and Council Member Presley thought this topic was worthy of having a discussion with Council and will allow an opportunity to make our meetings more efficient with ideas that could be implemented in the Council meetings. However, the discussion did not need to go any further if Council was not open to consolidating citizen comments to a single period instead of it being throughout the meeting. Upon discussing their current procedures, City Attorney Scott Lemond relayed the Attorney General ruling that members of the public did have the right to speak and Council could limit that time,but could not interact with the speaker. Mr. Davis asked Council whether they were open to consolidating public comments at the beginning with three minutes given for agenda items and one minute for non-agenda items. Also, Mr. Davis believed Council may want to consider limiting the ability to contribute time to another person. Council Member Presley agreed with the suggestions made as it would make for more efficient meetings. With public comments first, it would allow Council to consider what was said before they got to the agenda item. Council Member Presley was okay with the three minutes and would not be in favor of reducing that unless Council felt otherwise. As the pandemic was over and Lee College no longer offered Zoom for commentaries,he hoped Council would consider that as well. City Council Regular Work Session Minutes July 28,2022 Page 2 of 5 On Citizen Communication, Mayor Capetillo relayed when Mr. Sammie Dunn spoke in front of Council. Mr. Dunn followed the appropriate process which Mayor Capetillo fully supported as its own area of public comment given it was not a general comment. He would leave that section alone. However,when it came to citizens speaking on agenda items,Mayor Capetillo was not sure if it should be a free-for-all nor was he sure about having comments ahead of time. He believed the downfall of that would be when staff was asked to give a summary of an issue, it may answer citizens' questions. If questions or comments were at the beginning, he thought citizens may lose out on that. Council Member Alvarado mentioned she would be okay with doing it that way, but she did not want to do away with Zoom. On the issue of the time given to speakers, Council Member Alvarado requested further clarification on what was being described. She understood there was three minutes Council normally allowed for citizens to speak on agenda items. So, would there be a minute for comments on non-agenda items? In response, Mayor Capetillo stated he was not in favor of reducing the three minutes nor was he in favor of the one minute. It did not make sense to him as citizens may have information to present. Council Member Presley stated citizens had that opportunity under Citizen Communication which had a process and did not allow for them to speak on unrelated matters. Regarding that process, Council Member Alvarado wondered if Council could be notified if citizens wanted to sign up for an issue. City Clerk Angela Jackson answered that was part of the process; Staff asked citizens if they first went through the correct channels. Council Members were the last step before the issue would be placed on the agenda. Council further discussed their current process. Council Member Presley believed citizens should be given three minutes total. If citizens wanted to speak on six different agenda items, they would need to prioritize at their discretion. Council Member Powell was concerned over that three-minute period considering if someone had multiple items they wanted to talk about.Alternatively,he was open to increasing that time if Council would have one Citizen Communication section. Mayor Capetillo clarified there was two parts to their discussion: Citizen Communication and open communication on any agenda item. Council Member Powell explained he was talking about increasing that open communication. Council Member Johnson expressed he did not think Council should limit citizens' opportunity to speak on multiple items. Moreover, he questioned how moving everything to the front of the meeting would cut down on their time and people's perception that Council was hindering their freedom of speech. He was concerned that citizens would need to be present at the beginning of a meeting to speak on an item that may be at the end. He also believed it would get clustered having people speaking at the beginning and when the item would come up an hour later, it would be difficult to remember what was said. He liked being able to hear what citizens had to say at that moment, and agreed that citizens' concerns may be answered in the summary of those items. On another note, Council Member Johnson did not agree to shorten speakers' time and he liked that Mayor Capetillo made sure people stayed on subject. Instead of punishing everyone, Council Member Johnson wanted the Mayor to continue doing just that. Council Member Presley explained how this would be more efficient when someone signed up to speak for seven different items and were given three minutes on each,that was twenty-one minutes. City Council Regular Work Session Minutes July 28,2022 Page 3 of 5 Council Member Presley questioned how many times had that been productive as he could not think of one. Also, citizens had to be present before the meeting to sign up on any agenda item anyways or email a head of time. That would not change. Council Member Johnson countered if a citizen did email and were not present at the beginning, they would miss their opportunity. Furthermore, Council Member Johnson noted Council Member Presley have mentioned that it did not happen much. So, why were they trying to change it? Council Member Presley clarified it had not happened much in a productive manner. Council Member Johnson contested that was his opinion of whether it was productive. To the citizen, voicing their opinion was productivity. He believed Council should not decide if it was productive because they thought so. Upon Mayor Capetillo's request, Ms. Jackson relayed the order of the flow of the meetings: 1) a call of order; 2) the announcement of a quorum; 3) the pledge; 4) the approval of the minutes; and then 5) Citizen Communication. Mayor Capetillo presumed citizens were supposed to talk at the beginning which Ms. Jackson confirmed so. Council Member Johnson noted they had not done that since he had been on Council, and repeated his concerns if it were to change. Council Member Presley and Council Member Johnson disagreed with the future perceptions of those changes. Council Member Lester's interpretation of Citizen Communication was that it was where citizens voiced an issue to Council for three to five minutes. He did not have a problem with that because citizens had to go through a process. On the other hand, Council Member Lester did not consider it a "Citizen Communication" when citizens signed up to speak on a specific agenda item. He agreed with Council Member Johnson that some agendas were lengthy, so having their say at the beginning of the meeting would make it difficult to remember. However, Council Member Lester did like the idea of reducing the maximum amount of time that could be contributed to another speaker. He was on the fence about Zoom,but other than that he liked their current process. Based on his experience, meetings dragged on because of the agenda and not because of citizens. Revisiting the Zoom issue, Council Member Lester stated he did prefer citizens to speak in person. Council then deliberated on what would be the maximum amount of time given to citizen speakers if others gave their time to one speaker and also the Zoom availability.Mayor Capetillo determined nine minutes was the sweet spot and the same would be applied to speakers on Zoom. However, Council Member Betancourth was not in favor of changing their process and did not have a preference on the time given to citizen speakers. Council Member Presley noted speaking, in general, was meant for citizens of Baytown and wondered if that would be enforced. Mayor Capetillo replied there were a few things to consider on that note, such as people wanting to open a business that did not reside in Baytown. As it sounded like there was a split decision, Council Member Presley stated he planned to call a point of order every time it needed to be called. If that had been done, their current discussion would not have taken place. Council Member Betancourth agreed and appreciated the discussion being brought up because she got the opportunity to study their rules and procedures. She noted there were a lot of things they did not do. If the City had those rules and procedures, Council and the presiding officer should start following it from that point on. Council Member Presley agreed. Council Member Johnson questioned why speakers were required to give their address. Ms. Jackson answered it had to be documented and it was in their rules and procedures. Council Member Lester added that allowed Council to know whether the speaker was a resident or an City Council Regular Work Session Minutes July 28,2022 Page 4 of 5 outsider. It was not that an outsider could not speak, but to Council Member Lester, a resident's voice carried a little more weight. Mr. Davis noted the address also logistically helped the City address matters that were property-specific. Council Member Johnson wondered if citizens could refuse to give their address and still have the right speak. Council Member Betancourth believed that would depend on the presiding officer. If the Mayor did not recognize an induvial,they would not speak. In looking at the statutory language, Mr. Lemond answered it was not required. He did not know if it was valid for Council to enforce that rule,but he had never seen it challenged. In addition, Council Member Johnson repeated that Mayor Capetillo had done a good job at holding people accountable on sticking to the agenda. Although,he believed the Mayor needed to be stricter. Mayor Capetillo stated he would try to do a better job and that he would like to always have a Sergeant at Arms with them. On the Zoom matter, Mayor Capetillo did think there was value in it but it could be abused.He believed nine minutes was plenty of time to convey a message. Council Member Lester presumed that would be accumulative. If citizens wanted to speak on five different items,they would get a total of nine minutes. Mayor Capetillo clarified that did not apply to Citizen Communication where it was a posted agenda item with five minutes as the maximum. Based on what he gathered by the discussion, Mayor Capetillo believed Council would not move everything up and would continue with the way they were currently doing. As items were addressed by Council, individuals would have the ability to speak at that time of the item. However, Mayor Capetillo wondered what would happen when an item was suspended or tabled. Did citizens still have the ability to speak on such item? Mr. Lemond answered yes. On posted agenda items, citizens had the right to speak even if Council took no action at that meeting. Council Member Powell commented with the golf course vote, he did not like the flow of the meeting. Council convened into an Executive Session, discussed for ninety minutes, and reconvened. The next item was the actual ordinance where everyone spoke, and then Council voted. While Council was in Executive Session, they did not have any of the citizens' feedback to use in their discussions. When the citizens did give their feedback, Council immediately voted. Council Member Powell wondered if there was a way to hear input before the Executive Session. Also, he expressed he did not like to vote on a budget, right after the public hearing because he wanted to have the time to process the feedback citizens gave. In response to the question, Mr. Lemond replied he had seen that be done in different ways. One way was to post the Executive Session item after the action item and have the citizens speak. Then, have the presiding officer say Council would take item out of order. Mayor Capetillo wished that would be cleaner. Revisiting their discussion about citizens speaking first, Mr. Lemond noted when recessing in to an Executive Session, Council would have those comments. Mayor Capetillo pointed out most Executive Sessions did not have an action item after. When there would be, Mayor Capetillo could manage that. If Council were to keep to their way of doing things, Council Member Johnson believed they needed to change their rules and procedures. Mayor Capetillo confirmed it would be changed and staff would present that draft of what was discussed. Council would then review the draft and address any additional items they wanted to revisit. b. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda for July 28, 2022,which is attached below. City Council Regular Work Session Minutes July 28,2022 Page 5of5 Council Member Powell wished to discuss Item 8.c. that considered the resolution setting the dates for their Budget Work Sessions. He suggested Council to discuss the dates and times. Mayor Capetillo suggested the meeting on August 16, 2022, be at 5:00 P.M., August 18, 2022, at 2:00 P.M., and August 23, 2022, at 5:00 P.M. If Council needed another day, they would have a day and a half. 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the July 28,2022, City Council Regular Work Session at 6:22 P.M. 41 •RY464444 An ela J. son, eityl City of Baytown '! ;, ' g r�� 0 ���qq co V' m± fk