Cheney council considers new rules

CHENEY – When Cheney was blanketed with snow last January, Arlene Fisher, the city administrator, asked clerks for lists of procedures in different departments in the city. Fisher had only been in her position for a couple of weeks at the time.

She found out that there was no official list of procedures for the City Council, which had been following Robert’s Rules of Order.

“Obviously it works out very well for them,” she said.

After the streets were cleared and things started to settle down, Fisher decided to put getting some rules of procedure on her to-do list. She and Stanley Schwartz, the attorney for the city, introduced the new rules to the City Council July 8 during a workshop at the end of the meeting.

“Serve it up for your consideration,” Schwartz said at the meeting. “Model and mold this to fit your practice.”

The 12-page document outlines such things as the council order of business during regular meetings. The order of business starts with the call to order and runs through the adjournment.

It discusses selection of the mayor pro tem, selection of committee members of the council, how voting happens, what happens if a vote ends up in a tie and how many readings an ordinance needs to become city law.

“They do all of these already,” Fisher said.

She added that the policy could become a great educational tool for new council members when they come aboard.

One of the issues covered in the rules and procedures includes citizens signing in if they wish to speak at meetings and public hearings, something that isn’t done now.

As it is, the mayor asks attendees if anyone would like to say something to the council. The speaker states his or her name and address and has two minutes to state their case.

If the rules are adopted by the council, the citizen would sign in with their name, address and whether they would like to speak for, against or from a neutral position about any topic.

Anyone who fails to sign in must wait until the ones who have signed in have had their say.

Another rule the document lays out is how a council member can get an addition to the meeting’s agenda. The council member would have to ask the mayor to place an item on the agenda or three council members must ask for the item. It can’t be more members than three, however, since four council members together would be a quorum.

The document states that the rules can be suspended or amended at any time. Fisher said that this might happen if the council decides to conduct all three readings of a city ordinance at one meeting, rather than conduct a reading once for three weeks.

The council did not make any decisions regarding the new rules at the last meeting. Many members noticed some changes they would like to see in the wording in a few places on the document.

They will consider modifications and will discuss it at a later meeting.