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TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: The Law Department
DATE: September 2, 2020
SUBJECT:
Identification of categories business items which are suitable for consideration as consent items on City Council agendas.
PURPOSE:
To define categories of items of "routine business" which may be placed on the consent agenda of City Council meetings without prior review by the standing committees.
BACKGROUND:
Following a discussions by the Rules, Administration, and Procedures Committee and the Committee of the Whole this summer, the City Council on August 11, adopted an ordinance that permits the Mayor to place items belonging to certain categories of business on the City Council's consent agenda that do not ordinarily require previous consideration by the Council's standing committees or the Committee of the Whole. The ordinance did not identify which categories of business were eligible for this expedited consideration, but provided that the Council had the authority to define those categories by resolution at a later time.
DISCUSSION:
Recognizing that expedited consideration of Council business represents an exception rather than rule, the City's administrative staff recommends that the Council take a conservative approach in defining categories of items eligible for this new process. Because the Council can always amend its procedures to define new categories in the future, it is not necessary to identify every possible category at this time. Similarly, since this process affords any alderman the right to have an item removed from the consent agenda, the risk of being "overly inclusive" on with this initial approach is not particularly high. To that end, the staff recommends the Council authorize the following categories of business for expedited consideration.
- Ordinances proposing or establishing special service areas when the special service areas are required by the Kane County Stormwater Management Ordinance and the City has the written consent of ...
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