ADMINSTRATION COMMITTEE
OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
April 20, 2011 Meeting
The Administration Committee of the Legislative Council held a meeting on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, in the Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street, Newtown, CT
Present: Chair Gary Davis, Mary Ann Jacob, George Ferguson
Absent: Jan Andras
The meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
No one spoke during public participation.
COMMITTEE MINUTES
The Committee minutes from the meeting on March 31, 2011, were approved unanimously. Mr. Ferguson moved approval of the minutes and the motion was seconded by Mrs. Jacob.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Propose Changes to the Rules of the Legislative Council: The Committee reviewed a list of proposed changes to the current rules of the Legislative Council that was prepared by Mr. Davis. As part of this document, Mr. Davis had integrated the draft guidelines entitled, “Procedure when Communicating with Others and Identifying Oneself as a Member of the Council,” that Legislative Council Chair Capeci had provided in December 2010 for the Committee’s review. Mr. Davis proposed adding a new section to the rules based on these guidelines and provided his thoughts on possible revisions.
The Committee reviewed the proposed changes, with the bulk of the discussion focused on changes to (1) the current committee structure, (2) how voter participation is conducted, (3) voting by proxy, and (4) the new section on communication guidelines.
The Committee also discussed a proposed change that would require the Council Vice Chair to be of a different political affiliation than the Chair.
Mr. Davis felt that in his last term on the Council, having a Chair and Vice Chair of different political affiliations had helped to foster a collegial atmosphere within the Council. Mrs. Jacob felt that requiring the Council Vice Chair to be of a different political affiliation than the Chair was forced and unnecessary. She noted that in some instances the best candidate to be Vice Chair might be from the majority party. She was not opposed to the idea of having a Chair and Vice Chair of different political affiliations; however, she did not think such a situation should be mandated by the Council rules. Mr. Ferguson concurred with that opinion.
Mr. Davis and Mrs. Jacob were in agreement with the proposal to change the committee structure of the Council, reducing the number of committees to four. They felt that streamlining the Committee structure would be simpler and would lessen the burden on some Council members who now served on three committees. Mr. Ferguson, however, liked the current structure because the committees had very specific responsibilities. He did agree with Mr. Davis that the subjects of the environment and land use were deserving of committee coverage, something that currently was not the case. He would propose creating a new committee to cover those areas.
Mr. Davis said he would like to see public participation be more flexible in terms of the topics that the public could address with the Council. He favored allowing the public to address topics not on a specific meeting agenda, as long as the topic was something over which the Council had jurisdiction and remarks were kept to no more than three minutes. The Committee discussed several other possible modifications to this approach.
Mrs. Jacob was concerned with the proposed change that would allow LC members to submit their vote in writing if they could not attend a Council meeting at which a vote would be taken on a specific issue. She noted that in the past Council members were afforded the opportunity to call into the meeting to listen to the discussion and then to vote. She thought that might be something to include in the rules. This approach would afford Council members the opportunity to listen to public comment and Council discussion on the motion prior to casting their vote. She and Mr. Davis noted that Council members did modify their vote sometimes based on Council discussion. Mr. Ferguson noted that other local government boards allowed members to participate by telephone.
The Committee felt the new section on communication guidelines was appropriate, and discussed the merits of the section and some of the specific wording. Mr. Davis thought it was important that whatever guideline was in place applied to comments made at public meetings, print communications, and on social media platforms. The Committee agreed, and also felt that whatever was agreed upon should be done in a consistent manner by all Council members. The Committee noted that the only time Council members should identify themselves as speaking on behalf of the Council should be if a specific resolution is passed authorizing them to do so.
The Committee decided not to take any action on the proposed recommendations at the meeting. Mr. Davis was asked to update the recommendations based on the discussion and send it to the committee members for review and continued reflection. The Committee would continue its discussions at its next meeting on May 18.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
No one spoke during public participation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. Mrs. Jacob moved that the meeting be adjourned, and Mr. Ferguson seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.
Submitted by Gary Davis
* Minutes are not finalized until approved at the next regularly scheduled meeting.
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