At the tail end of the open session last Monday evening, the Marshalltown city council agreed to three manual changes that would modify the way future meetings are conducted.

The rules are reviewed on an annual basis, and City Administrator Carol Webb laid out each of the three proposed changes. The first would allow the mayor and council to provide “a general response” to public comments if they wish but still does not allow ongoing debate or discussion on those topics.

“This is something that I have experience with at other councils that council members are allowed to give some general comment back to the public so that they feel a little bit more like they’ve been listened to in the meeting, but without engaging in a debate,” Webb said. “If it becomes something that needs a further dialogue among the council, we can then add it to an agenda. The council can even ask for us to do that, but I do think, without violating open meetings law, there is an opportunity to at least provide some level of response to a member of the public if so desired.”

The second change pertains to public hearings and would change the order of how they are conducted. Under the new arrangement, staff would first present the information on the item, then public comment would be allowed before the council deliberates. As it currently stands, the public comments come first.

“This would allow the public to make informed comments on the item rather than doing that and having staff present after,” Webb said. “The one thing I would reinforce is that the public should not comment during or after council deliberation. At that point, the issue is in the hands of the council.”

The third and final change would allow annual budget requests to be exempt from the rules regarding motions to reconsider as those discussions typically stretch over several meetings as the council learns more about the city’s fiscal position. Councilor Gary Thompson told Webb he supported all three changes and gave each of them a nickname — the Jimmy Landt rule for the first, the Dave Grieve rule for the second and the Greg Nichols rule for the third.

Fellow Councilor Mike Ladehoff concurred with Thompson and specifically agreed with Grieve on changing the order for public hearings so that commenters can have the information they need before stepping up to the speaking podium. Councilor Jeff Schneider asked if the response to public comment rule needed to be run by the city’s legal counsel, and Steve Leidinger of Lynch Dallas PC, who attended the meeting virtually, told the council he didn’t see any issue with what was being proposed.

“That’s the quickest opinion we’ve gotten in the 12 years I’ve been here,” Mayor Joel Greer said.

During the public comment period, Grieve said all of the changes seemed like common sense and additionally suggested that agendas be sent out sooner to give the public more time to review items. Currently, they are typically sent out the Thursday before a Monday night meeting.

“I think that it’s pretty hard to get the agenda out when we get it out now. There’s a lot of development that happens just that week before the agenda’s put out,” Webb said. “So as much as I’d love to give more time, I don’t think it’s feasible.”

Greer added that city staff meets on the Monday before each council meeting, and agendas are being worked on all week. They can also be amended up until 24 hours before the meeting.

Ladehoff noted that for about 50 years, agendas were released the Friday before meetings, and he joked that Nichols “couldn’t keep up,” which resulted in the move up to Thursdays.

“Department heads are trying to get a hold of contractors, and they’re trying to get this stuff in. When do you have to have it in early to get it in to (City Clerk) Alicia (Hunter) and get it out the door? And the thing is it creates mistakes,” Ladehoff said. “I would rather have it still come out on Friday and it be right than be pushing everybody — now we’ve gotta push it an extra day ahead of time to be able to get it in here. There’s only so much that staff can do without creating a mess.”

Nichols motioned to move the changes, which were only up for discussion on the agenda, forward to be brought back as a formal resolution, and it passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote.

“In the history of the world, that’s the shortest discussion on changing our manual that we ever had,” Greer said.

——

Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.