08/21/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 8/21/2007 discuss the requirement in the regulations that the Clerk is supposed to have a separate table. Mayor O'Grady said, as stated in caucus, every opportunity he gets to limit conflict, he seeks that. He thinks there is unnecessary conflict during the conduct of these meetings and asked for clarification from the Law Director. He understands it is the responsibility of the President of Council to maintain order and decorum. Additionally, when the President of Council takes issue with a particular word he might use, he accepts that as well and will back up and do that differently. The place where he has an objection is when he is not permitted to speak. Today it wasn't a problem because the President allowed him to go back and finish. The Charter of the City of North Olmsted empowers the Mayor to participate fully in the discussion. And instances where he is not permitted to speak interfere with his ability under the Charter to fulfill his responsibility. As chairman of the Intra-Governmental Committee, Councilman Ryan noted that the Rules of Council have been directed to his committee. He felt this should be discussed by the committee who will report back to Council. Law Director Dubelko said it is not just a rules issue, but a Charter issue. Under the Charter, the Mayor has a right to participate in all debate. Also under the Charter, the President of Council has the power to preside over meetings which means controlling meetings. City government is a microcosm of national government. We have a democracy here. We have separation of powers between legislative and executive branch. We have the need to protect and promote people's civil rights and liberties. Taking that as background as something we can all agree on, the President, under the Charter, has an obligation and responsibility to preside over the meetings and regulate the debate. The Council rules talk about impugning motives and personalities. He appreciates the President is doing an excellent job of administering the rules as they're written by City Council. It occurred to him, when we have debate between members of the administration and Council, it shouldn't be any more antiseptic debate than we have members of the audience who exercise their rights and go to the podium and members of Council who respond in that vein. Perhaps Mr. Ryan will the issue into committee and look at the rules aspect of it and assuring that we have good compliance with a couple of Charter provisions-the President's powers and the Mayor's powers that may clash from time to time. He tends to think that the solution, rather than taking that rule that prohibits impugning motives and engaging in personalities in essence rendering the Mayor's speeches nicer to Council, he thinks probably the better resolution is to allow the Mayor to address an issue as he sees fit given his Charter responsibilities to participate fully in debate. At the same time, the President should exercise his right to control debate by limiting the time involved rather than getting into what is said. He thinks that's probably in the end a better resolution that respects the President's authority to preside over the meetings and also permits the Mayor's authority to participate fully in debates. Councilman Orlowski said he hoped a committee report and a debate would be defined. 25