2005 AGN MAY 17 I13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item #13 CITY OF COLTON AGENDA REPORT FOR COUNCIL MEETING OF May 17, 2005 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL FROM: Dean Derleth, City Attorney SUBJECT: Consideration of Updated Council Manual of Procedure DATE: May 8, 2005 During the City Council workshop on January 22, 2005, the Council directed staff and the City Attorney to update the Council Manual of Procedure (the "Manual'), which was originally adopted in 1986. The Council felt such an update has become necessary because of the many changes that have occurred since the Manual was first adopted. For example, since 1986, City Council membership has changed from five to seven members. Also, resolutions were adopted after 1986 which amended the Manual, but the amendments were never integrated into the original Manual. In addition, the Ralph M. Brown Act (Government Code § 54950 et seq.) (the "Brown Act") has been amended since 1986 and those amendments were not integrated into the Manual. As a result, many of the procedures listed in the Manual are either non-compliant with the Brown Act or no longer reflect the original intent behind certain adopted procedures. At the January workshop, the Council further directed staff and the City Attorney to create a "redline" version of the updated Manual for the Council for review. Staff and the City Attorney have prepared the updated Manual as requested. However, due to the extensive changes that needed to made to the original document, a redline version would not have been useful. The updated Manual is a new document which incorporates all of the changes described above. DISCUSSION: As discussed above, many changes have occurred since the 1986 adoption of the Manual. The changes have been incorporated into the updated Manual as follows: (1) The Manual now requires a majority of Councilmembers for all actions. One of the most significant changes since the original Manual was adopted in 1986 is the Council membership increase from five to seven members. The original Manual often refered to needing only three Council Members to act upon certain matters. Needing three Council Members clearly reflected the intent of the Council to require the majority of the Council approving all actions back when the Council was comprised of five members. (2) The updated Manual includes all amendments adopted by resolution. Since the 1986 adoption of the original Manual, a number of resolutions were adopted amended the Manual