How To Add An Item To An Oro Valley Council Meeting

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Did you ever want to have an item discussed by council at a council meeting?  John Musolf did. Here's how its done:
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Recently, as a citizen, I submitted via email to the Mayor, 6 council members, Town Clerk, and Town Attorney that contained two future agenda suggestions:

• Discuss the creation of a Formal Oro Valley “Code of Conduct and Ethics”
• Discuss and reconcile differences and discrepancies that may exist between the Town Code and Parliamentary Rules and Procedures.

As it turns out, there is no provision that allows a citizen to directly submit an item for addition to council meeting agenda. Simply put, if you want to add an item to the agenda for council consideration you must get two council members to put it on the agenda.

There are two documents that describe the process of creating the agenda.  One is the Town Code. This document can be found at the Oro Valley town web site. The other is a document called: Oro Valley Parliamentary Rules and Procedures. This document is not found on the web site.

According to town code, it is the town clerk who collects all pertinent information and prepares an agenda according to the order of business and furnish each council member, the mayor and the town attorney with a copy of the agenda and any material pertinent thereto.” (Town Code: Article 2-4)

The Parliamentary Rules and Procedures document describe how an agenda is formulated:

 “Agendas for Council meetings shall be prepared by the Agenda Committee, which shall be made up of the Mayor (or Vice-Mayor), Town Manager, Town Clerk, and one Councilmember, with review of the proposed final agenda by the Town Attorney. The council member shall be selected by the Council and his/her term shall last for three (3) months ending with the second Regular Council meeting of the third month and at which time a new Councilmember shall be selected.(Section 5.2.A)”

The sequence of the agenda is also detailed in section 5.2.  However, missing from this sequence is a discussion of how future agenda items are considered.  Further in the Parlimentary Rules and Procedures we find that:

 “Any Councilmember may request that an item be placed on a future agenda by contacting a member of the Agenda Committee. This provision applies to the Mayor and Councilmembers. However, if two (2) or more Councilmembers request that an item go on the agenda, then it shall be put on the agenda if it is submitted to the Agenda Committee twelve (12) days before the Council meeting date.” (Section 8.6)

So, if a citizen wants to get an item on the council agenda, you need to get two council members to agree that it should be on the agenda.

John Musolf
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