Sub-committees are coming back to the Everett City Council.
First the council voted unanimously to hold an annual retreat at the start of each year to plan how to address the five or six topics where Everett will have to make major decisions.
The retreat will be held within the city limits of Everett and the public will be notified where and when the retreat will be held and can observe the retreat.
In a second, split vote, the Council voted 4 – 3 to form three sub-committees. A budget and finance committee, a public safety committee and a general government committee. Currently the seven member council works as a committee of the whole where all council members are briefed at the same time and individual council members follow up with the administration on items of interest or concern.
The sub-committee structure was introduced by councilmember Paul Roberts who argued that sub-committees would allow council members to be more involved in the crafting of policy options as opposed to just hearing about them when the administration brings them to the full council.
The President of the City Council would appoint the members to the various sub-committees. The meetings would be held during a two-hour period directly prior to the weekly evening city council meetings and would be televised and have minutes taken.
The public could attend but would not be allowed to comment. Any public input would have to take place either during the full council meeting public comment period or the member of the public could contact the councilmember directly by email or other means.
Councilmembers Moore, Gipson and Murphy voted against the idea with Roberts, Stonecipher, Tuohy and Bader voting for sub-committees. No word yet on when they would begin and how much extra cost there will be to staff, broadcast, record minutes or facilitate the sub-committee meetings.
You can find the proposed committee changes and rules here. You’ll need to scroll about 3/4s of the way down the briefing document.
August 6, 2015
Everett, Everett Government