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2021 04 08 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN April 8, 2021 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas inet in a Regular Work Session on Thursday, April 08, 2021, at 5:34 P.M., in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Laura Alvarado Council Member Jacob Powell Council Member Charles Johnson Council Member Mike Lester Council Member Chris Presley Council Member Heather Betancourth Mayor Pro Tem Brandon Capetillo Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Karen Horner City Attorney Angela Jackson Acting City Clerk Mayor Capetillo convened the April 8, 2021, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5:34 P.M., all members were present. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Discuss possible amendments to the City of Baytown Council Rules of Procedure. City Attorney Karen Horner presented an overview of the City of Baytown's rules of procedure. The general rules of the City of Baytown basically have eight different sections which includes an authority; general rules; code of conduct for Council Members, administrative staff, citizens and for the public; types of meetings; presiding officer and duties; order of business; consideration of ordinances/resolutions; and creation of committees. The general rules, all meetings are public, must have a quorum before the start of the meeting, attendance is required unless excused. The rules talk about misconduct, all meetings require minutes, any questions must contain one subject when coming before council. City Attorney Karen Horner states that the rule prescribes the rights to the floor which are given by the mayor, the preceding officer to be one person at a time. Employees are required to be at meetings, including the City Manager, City Clerk who takes minutes, the City Attorney acting as Parliamentarian and answers question of law and the Chief of Police who serves as Sergeant at Anns, and anybody else who the City Manager deems appropriate to be there. Mrs. Horner further states that Council can suspend or amend the rules, they have to consider at one time, discuss one time at a council meeting, and then it can be amended at a subsequent council meeting. City Council Work Session Minutes April 8, 2021 Page 2 of 4 Council Member's conduct are subject to the rules. They deal with their conduct during Council Meetings. Once they are given the floor, they are not to be interrupted unless called out of order. They can present a motion to require enforcement of rules. If something seems like it is out of order, they can do that. Staff is also subject to the rules, they also have to be recognized in order to speak. When staff speak, the entire Council have to be address. Citizens are also subject to the rules, and cannot have private conversations, they can be removed if they are disruptive or boisterous, and will be discouraged from unauthorized remarks, whistles, etc. The City of Baytown is subject to Robert's Rules, the latest edition and with one exception that our Mayor can take, participate and vote on matters that come before the City Council, must be recognized to speak. When citizens speak they must give their name and address and cannot pose a question without permission of the presiding officer. Written comments can be submitted to the Council so they can consider those before acting on any item. There is also a procedure for calling people out of order. If somebody has charges against an employee, they are supposed to be immediately called out of order and addressed to the City Manager. If disturbances are likewise can be called out of order, and communication devices should be muted. The policies also discuss types of meetings such as regular meetings, and work sessions. Work sessions state no action is taken. It is just a discussion and really the public is not supposed to participate unless invited to by the Mayor. The City has special meetings and those are called when needed. Emergency meetings are those when there is some public desire or a need to have a meeting because of some sort of imminent emergency or something like that. There are requirements as far as notice of meetings, usually (72) seventy-two hours except for emergency meetings where the city must give (1) one -hour notice and special notice to the press. Presiding officer's duties rely on officers to call the meetings to order, preserve order. If the presiding officer leaves, he is supposed to point to a substitute chair for the remainder of that meeting. He presides over all points of order before motion or his vote is taken, he is supposed to state the question before the committee for the Council and can call for recess at regular intervals not to exceed (15) fifteen minutes. He can call for votes either by hand, voice, to snake sure everybody votes. Mrs. Horner continued with the order of business. Agendas, the rule talks about who can place items on the agenda, when they are due and you cannot reconsider an item for (6) six months after the item is scheduled, unless majority votes to waive that rule. The rule talks about the order, so typically, there is a call to order, confirmation of a quorum, pledge and invocation, minutes, citizens communications, business items, consent agenda item(s), appointments and the city manager's report. Citizens communications are also discussed in this section, where the citizen have (5) five minutes to discuss their item that is on the agenda after the request has been submitted to administration first to see if they can handle it administratively, before submitting to the City Clerk's Office no later than (5) five o'clock the day before the posting of the meeting. Only (1) one citizen communication per meeting. Item on an agenda, anyone can sign up to speak and is limited to (3) three minutes and passing time is permitted. Ordinances are printed, they are approved as the form, they are distributed to you before the council meeting or at the council meeting. A majority vote is required in order to pass any item, except sometimes by law, have to have a supermajority vote. City Council Work Session Minutes April 8, 2021 Page 3 of 4 Creation of boards and commissions that is also within a Council's purview, they can be standing committees, they can be ad hoc committees, City Council prescribe the duties and the membership and the selection, their advisory unless otherwise required by law, or Council and that could be via ordinance and can prescribe that certain powers and duties that are outside beyond just advisory in nature. The appointments are under City Council's control. The rules do say that it is supposed to be inclusive of all segments of the committee, consider all the qualifications, and after (3) three consecutive terms, the rules also encourage a new appoint. The boards and commissions shall have rules and procedures that are substantially similar to what City Council have. So, in the recent past, these rules in the current fonn were probably adopted in 2004. They have been amended four times - 20071) 20085 2012 and the last time the City Council discussed the rules was in 2019 and there was just a discussion but no amendments at that time. Council Member Chris Presley commented that everyone up here and staff, we are all extremely capable individuals and ambitious in many ways as well, whether it is politics or business, community civics, we all have various personal passions and we all have a life to live outside of City Hall. But we are elected officials and we represent the city and truly the institution of City Hall, in my opinion, anyway, should be first and foremost always. Mr. Presley summarized what he is trying to say, "Mission -First Leadership." The most important thing is how we handles those incidences when sizeable differences of opinion occur, you must talk them through and it never sinks down to anything personal. We really just need to get on to the next issue and the next task at hand. Mr. Presley also stated that he said all of this because he was the one that requested to put this refresher on the agenda and he believes there was an oversight on these rules of procedure pertaining to the time the mayor bangs the gavel until adjournment. Mr. Presley truly believes in a standard of conduct and being the best Council Members, they can, and in his opinion, it just seems to him that it should apply to the other times that Council is acting in official capacity representing the city, whether at City Hall, a ribbon -cutting or a neighborhood meeting interfacing with the public. He mentions that he will forward an amendment for consideration to City Attorney Karen Horner along these lines. Council Member Laura Alvarado states that the purpose of the City Council is to represent the citizens not only for their district but the entire city itself. Ms. Alvarado also states that refreshers are good to have and would be glad to review any amendments that are submitted. Council Member Mike Lester added that the code of conduct refers to how we treat each other and suggested maybe City Council can consider adding language that he will submit on how we treat each other as well citizens and staff. b. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda for April 8, 2021. There was no discussion for this item. City Council Work Session Minutes April 8, 2021 Page 4 of 4 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the April 8, 2021, City Council Regular Work Session at 5:50 P.M. UQkj-�-- Angela a kson, A ting City Clerk City of aytown A • • •, skP Z