Council meeting comment periods and city CEO’s title get changes in Costa Mesa
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Costa Mesa City Council meetings will now start 15 minutes later, at 6 p.m., and run a little differently following a handful of changes approved Tuesday.
As a result of a unanimous council vote, the period at each meeting for members of the public to speak about items not on the agenda will no longer be cut off at 6:40 p.m., as had been the case. Under the previous rules, anyone who didn’t get a chance to speak before then would have to wait until the end of the meeting.
As before, each speaker will be allowed three minutes.
Council members also tweaked how they will deal with the consent calendar, which is typically stocked with items considered routine that can be approved with one motion.
A council member or resident can pull items off the consent calendar for a separate discussion or vote. The council’s recent practice in those cases has been to place pulled items at the end of the meeting, meaning residents might have to wait hours to comment on them.
The new schedule approved Tuesday will mean those items will be heard following consideration of the full consent calendar.
Mayor Katrina Foley pitched the changes “to allow the City Council to conduct the public’s business while balancing the citizens’ rights to address” the body.
The proposed change that sparked the most discussion Tuesday was Foley’s idea to move the period for council comments and suggestions from near the beginning of meetings to toward the end.
Councilman Allan Mansoor said he wants council members to have the ability to respond to residents immediately after the public comment period.
“I like the idea of us being able to respond directly to you right after you speak instead of you having to wait hours until the end of our council meeting,” he told the audience.
Foley, though, said she wants to prevent council members from making lengthy speeches or presentations early in a meeting.
“I think there’s a way to continue to address concerns raised in public comments without having to open it up to a 20-, 30-minute speech that’s made at the beginning of a meeting,” she said. “My goal is to eliminate that from the beginning of our meeting.”
The council eventually struck a compromise allowing members to speak for up to four minutes each after the public comment period.
Council members could get additional time at the end of the meeting if they choose.
“We’re off to a great start to the new year,” Foley said of the compromise. “Look at that!”
The council wasn’t as united about a proposal to change the title of administrator Tom Hatch from chief executive officer to city manager.
The latter title is given to the highest-ranking appointed public official in virtually all Orange County cities. That also was true in Costa Mesa until February 2011, when the council changed the title to CEO.
Some speakers Tuesday said changing it back to city manager would provide consistency and make clear that Costa Mesa should be administered as a city, not as a corporation or another business entity.
Councilman Jim Righeimer said changing the title in 2011 “had to do with transparency to the public to know that person, that man or woman, is the one in charge of our city.”
The council voted 3-2 to change the title, with Righeimer and Mansoor voting no. The vote also means the title of assistant CEO will revert to assistant city manager.
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
