TO: The City Council Members
FROM: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
DATE: October 12, 2018
SUBJECT:title
An Ordinance creating and appointing a Special City Council Committee on Revisions to the City Code and making provisions related thereto.
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DISCUSSION:
During the course of the past year, the Law Department has identified several areas of the City Code that require the Council's attention. In some instances, Code provisions conflict with one another, and changes in federal or state law have preempted the City's home rule authority to enforce various other provisions. In the past year, the City has received two letters threatening litigation involving portions of the Code that may no longer withstand constitutional scrutiny. Other provisions, though constitutional on their face, may lack protections to ensure that they are enforced in a fair and consistent manner. Additionally, over time, the Council has developed informal procedural customs and practices that are not reflected in the Code or which, in some cases, conflict with the City Code.
Revising the City Code is a tedious and time-consuming process. Our standing committees tend to have full agendas as it is, and seldom are revisions of this nature confined to topics that are solely within the jurisdiction of a single standing committee.
For this reason, I am proposing the creation of a special committee consisting of five aldermen to review the City Code and to make recommendations for revisions to the Committee of the Whole for consideration by the City Council. The proposed committee membership consists of at least one member from each of the Council's standing committees. The Mayor Pro Tem will also serve as an ex-officio member of the committee. The proposed standing committee will remain in existence through the municipal elections in the spring at which time the ordinance will sunset unless there is further action required by the Council.
Though the Council has created special committees in th...
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