Council moves committee/council reports to study session

The Leavenworth City Council has decided to move council member and committee reports from the council meetings to the study session. These reports always took place at the beginning of the council meeting, often taking 20-to-30 minutes.
“As we talked about in the city council study session, there are a couple of changes we’re going to suggest. Discus the prior month’s meetings, topics of interest and information for the council as a whole to consider,” said City Administrator Joel Walinski, at the Jan. 23 city council meeting. “The difference you will see when you give your committee reports, that will actually be at the study session, which would open the door for the council to ask questions of each other. Here, basically it is a presentation at the audience.”
Mayor Cheri Kelley Farivar said the committee and council reports are not for the audience.
“I have heard from a couple people who attend meetings they like hearing those reports from council. If we choose to adopt this, this is not cast in stone. We’ll do it for awhile and see how it works, how it feels to us,” Farivar said. “The point to remember is when you are reporting your committee assignments and what you’ve done in the last two weeks, you are reporting to council. That’s the thing. Not to audience. They certainly get to hear it.”
The idea is to report to the council on the various meetings attended, like the Link Transit Board or the Chelan Douglas Health Board, Farivar said. Councilman Elmer Larsen said it probably makes more sense for the council to report at the study session.
“There is a month lag on some of these. There may be occasions to talk to audience, when there is information you want to get out. I would say, is there any urgent community reports? Just so we have the opening. It makes sense to have it during the study session. I would certainly be willing to try it,” Larsen said.
Seems it will extend the study session, but it will short the council meetings, Farivar said.
“I think when folks sit through the committee reports, they zone out. They were not really paying attention. Several have said they really don’t tune it and are not interested,” said Councilwoman Carolyn Wilson.
Farivar said this will be a moving document. The council will decide what works best. Councilwoman Margaret Neighbors asked if council member and committee reports will still remain on the agenda.
“We want to leave that there because, on occasion, there may be a reason for the council report on something that has occurred,” Walinski responded.
“If had a meeting upstairs that only three council members were present for and it was information for the whole council, that would be the opportunity to do that,” Farivar responded.
If it is something timely, like Apple Maggots, Larsen said the council should talk about it as soon as possible. He felt the council member and committee reports should be left on the agenda.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.