The Manhattan Beach City Council significantly revised its meeting protocol Tuesday night with the intention of improving public engagement.
Meetings will end at 10:30 p.m. in hopes that more people will participate. The public will have the chance to comment on any topic at the beginning of the meeting, instead of having to wait until the subject they want to speak on is raised.
The public can no longer directly remove items from the consent calendar, when the council approves a variety of “routine and customary” proposals with one vote, for discussion.
Mayor Mark Burton, who was sworn in July 7, pushed for a definite end time to the meetings, saying all effective meetings require one.
“If we’re looking for more public participation, it’s not going to happen when residents are asleep,” he said. “It’s not transparent to have items discussed late at night.”
The public as well as council members have long grumbled about meetings often ending at midnight or later.
Some regular meeting attendees said the new rules would limit their input without bringing in anyone new.
While most supported earlier meeting end times, some objected to having most of their comments limited to the beginning of the meeting and no longer being able to pull items from the consent calendar.
If a member of the public wants to pull an item for discussion, he must convince at least one councilmember to do so.
“We elected you, but not to make all our decisions,” said resident Bill Victor. “I dream of waking up one day and finding a skyscraper next door and asking the council and them saying, ‘It was on the consent calendar, didn’t you see it?’”
He suggested that the councilmembers’ comments should be limited.
Councilmember Tony D’Errico bristled at the suggestion.
“It’s not your meeting,” said D’Errico. “It’s our meeting. It’s not a public meeting. It’s a meeting held in public. You need to get it straight.”
“I’m not saying we should not listen to residents,” he continued. “For me to be alert and make my best decision at 11 or 12 or 1 is not doing residents any good.”
Burton said most cities don’t allow the public to pull items. At a meeting devoted to meeting management on July 8, it was decided that the process had been implemented to prevent inappropriate items being put on the consent calendar, but that it was no longer needed.
“I will use the term ‘abuser’ — you heard tonight we had one — who pulls a number of items and doesn’t address them,” said Councilmember Wayne Powell. “I think he already split. Why penalize the public because of the abusers?”
The new format dictates that if all the business on the agenda hasn’t been completed by 10:30 p.m., it will automatically be continued to the next meeting unless four of the five councilmembers vote to continue the meeting.
Councilmember Wayne Powell objected to this practice, saying it was in place when he first joined the council and would result in a backlog. Instead, he suggested having an additional meeting.
Councilmember David Lesser was the lone holdout in voting against the new rules.
“I support exploring how to end meetings sooner and improve public engagement,” he said. “I think we as council members are more responsible for meetings going longer than members of the public.”
Lesser objected to having all of the public comments, except for on select items marked as “general business,” at one time.
“I want a meaningful exchange with the public,” he said. “I think it’s difficult for them to address all of the items up front.” ER
