Um let's go ahead and call the meeting to order.

Welcome everybody to our uh special council meeting today, May 27th, 2026.

I'm gonna go to call the meeting to order and pass it to Clementine for roll call and to share announcements with the public.

Councilmember Barber present.

Councilmember Garcia.

Here.

Council Member Rash here.

Councilmember Smith.

Here.

And Mayor Williamson.

Here.

And public comment and participation information is provided on this meeting's agenda, which is online at monterey.gov slash agendas.

In person attendees, please keep your electronic devices and phones muted to prevent audio interference.

Consistent with the First Amendment and the Brown Act, individuals have the right to speak at public meetings, which includes the right to criticize or support city policies or actions.

The city encourages your uninhibited and robust feedback on public issues affecting the city.

And we thank you for participating.

Thank you, Clementine.

And with that, we'll go ahead and do the Pledge of Allegiance, and I'll ask Council McGarcia to kick us off.

Which stands under God.

Thank you, Gina.

All right.

And with that, we will get to our public appearance item.

Item one on the agenda is to review and provide guidance on council governance policy, agendizing process, and meeting efficiency.

With that, I'll pass it to Dante for staff presentation.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh this was uh an agenda item that was requested by council, and staff has taken some time to do some analysis.

At this time, I'll turn it over to our assistant city manager Nat and also our city clerk, Clementine.

Thank you very much, City Manager Hall.

And good afternoon, mayor and council.

Uh, we are here this afternoon to uh to talk about uh the first item on today's agenda, which is the uh governance policy and specifically the process by which you all, members of the city council bring items forward for discussion and deliberation for a future agenda.

And uh also the second piece of this item will be to discuss different ways in which we can improve and enhance meeting efficiency within the within the city and the city council.

So uh Clementine and I will be tag teaming this presentation.

Uh she's done uh quite a bit of research on what some of the best practices are among local governments and cities and agencies throughout California.

And uh based on that research as well as looking and reviewing internally our current process, uh, what are ways in which we can maybe do things uh slightly different?

Uh what are option policy options for council as we look at uh variations to the agendizing process and then what are different ways in which we can uh maybe improve meeting efficiency.

And um, we'll start with the uh couple of slides here and uh bear with me just a moment while I pull up uh pull up the slides.

Hopefully, this comes up.

Uh here we go.

So the current policy.

Let's start with the policy and the current policy in under which uh council members may agendize new matters.

And uh it's a multi-step.

Okay, location has been turned off.

Thank you, Microsoft Edge.

Okay.

Um what we have here is uh a four-step process.

Um a current policy in governance uh states that uh council members are to submit a written request up to 350 words that outlines what the request to agenda is is about, and uh that provides uh staff and council an understanding on uh what that request is.

And then at the meeting under the section request to agendize, that's where the council member provides a three-minute or up to three-minute verbal report.

Council members can ask questions.

There's an opportunity for staff to provide feedback on uh potential timeline and time frame.

The public has an opportunity to provide input or ask questions, and then uh with two yes votes, the item gets agendized to a future meeting.

And so uh that's that's the current policy as it states now.

Um some of the benefits to the current policy is that uh it's transparent to the public but also transparent to council.

We see ahead of time, similar to the item that is after this, uh item number two.

Uh we have an understanding of what the what is being requested.

We can uh council can have a chance to discuss the scope, the time, and the priority.

Where does it prioritize among all the other priorities within the city?

It encouraged it also ensures that at least two members support agendizing the matter and not just one, but also doesn't require at this time uh having three members or more uh agendize uh support for to agendize the matter.

It also helps us as staff have a clearer understanding on the request before we begin the research.

Some of the challenges though we know and pain points we we call it for the current policy is that uh sometimes there's an unclear timeline for staff in terms of how do we and when we can deliver those approved items, and uh that's something that we know we can improve upon on our side.

Um there also is often we've observed a temptation to discuss the substance.