(a)
The procedures for placing items on the agendas of the city commission of the City of Harlingen shall be as follows:
(1)
The city manager shall:
a.
Be responsible for coordinating preparation of the agenda for each city commission meeting;
b.
Coordinate all items for placement on the agenda and supporting documentation;
c.
Timely submit agenda items and supporting documentation to the city secretary;
d.
Group agenda items by department or by topic;
e.
Utilize a consent agenda for routine, noncontroversial items that require city commission action, but need little or no commission deliberation, except that the mayor, city manager, or any commission member may remove any item from the consent agenda for separate consideration;
f.
Mark each action item, identifying an item that is an ordinance or a resolution;
g.
List items from the commission in a separate section of the agenda and identify which members of the commission requested the items inclusion;
h.
Receive items from city staff for consideration and approval for placement on an agenda and the city manager may establish procedures for submission of routine items without his approval; and
i.
Work, in conjunction with the mayor, to exercise the manager's best judgment to determine the most important items received for placement on the agenda and adding other items of business to come before the commission.
(2)
Items presented in a timely manner may be submitted for placement on the agenda of a meeting of the city commission by:
(3)
The city manager shall:
a.
Not place an item on the agenda of the city commission if, in the city manager's opinion, a particular item should be considered by an advisory board, commission, committee, or staff prior to city commission consideration, and it is so referred; and
b.
Place on the agenda administrative matters or matters that, due to exigent circumstances, the city manager determines can go on the agenda because the back-up material accompanying the item is sufficient to provide the commission with a full explanation of the item.
(4)
The city secretary shall:
a.
Establish a deadline to receive all agenda items prior to each regularly scheduled city commission meeting, with the understanding that items submitted after that time will be held over until the next commission meeting, unless the item is of such importance that the mayor or city manager elects to place it on an earlier agenda or calls a special meeting;
b.
Prepare the agenda for proper and legal posting to the public and make the agenda available to the media so that the media will have enough notice of the agenda and the date, time, and place of the meeting to disseminate the notice of the commission meeting to the public at least the day before the scheduled meeting. Posting of the agenda in compliance with Texas Government Code ch. 551, Open Meetings Act, is presumptive proof of meeting the requirements of this division;
c.
Prepare agenda packets for all regular meetings which can be picked-up by the mayor and commissioners, or delivered by staff, late on the Friday afternoon preceding a regularly scheduled Wednesday city commission meeting and shall make agenda packets for special meetings available to the mayor and commissioners as early as possible in the same manner as for regular meetings;
d.
See that the city commission agenda complies with the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code ch. 552;
e.
Except as otherwise provided in Texas Government Code § 551.045, not allow an item to be added to or placed upon a city commission agenda later than 72 hours prior to a city commission meeting unless the item has been qualified as an "emergency" as defined by the Texas Open Meetings Act (Texas Government Code ch. 551), which would require that the nature of the emergency be specified in the agenda and notices given to any who have filed a written request for such notices of emergency items; and
f.
Notify each individual who has placed an item on the agenda of the fact that they are expected to be at the meeting to discuss their item, but the city secretary shall only be required to provide each individual with notice that the item is on the agenda and the number of the item as shown on the agenda and shall not have to give a time for that person to be ready to appear before the commission.
(5)
The city commission shall:
a.
Except as otherwise provided in Texas Government Code § 551.045, not consider or take action on any item unless that item has been posted on the agenda for a specific meeting and the agenda has been posted in a public place 72 hours prior to the meeting; and
b.
Not take an item up for discussion as a matter of commission business during any commission meeting that does not appear on the agenda; however, the commission may receive information through the citizen's communications process.
(b)
Except as otherwise provided by state law, this section shall be directory only and a violation of any of the provisions of this section does not affect the validity or legality of any commission action otherwise properly adopted. Each newly elected commission may adopt new procedural rules. If procedural rules are adopted under this section, the city secretary shall make copies of the rules available to the public.
(Code 1997, § 30.08; Ordinance 08-31, adopted 4/16/2008)