Like a father figure having to separate two bickering children, the Sunnyvale Vice Mayor had to intervene on a few occasions during a city council meeting scheduled to discuss council meeting protocol and efficiency on Aug. 12.
Certain moments of Tuesday night’s meeting, which lasted from 6 to 7 p.m., served as examples of the ongoing struggle the council has in maintaining civil and orderly meetings.
This was the third meeting of this type. At the request of Vice Mayor Jim Davis, the council held two meetings in 2013 to discuss ways to collaborate and improve behavior at public meetings in hopes of addressing ongoing disruptive behavior at city council meetings.
Davis missed the first meeting, as he was in Washington D.C. at the time, and Councilman Pat Meyering missed the second meeting due to an illness. But all members were present on Aug. 12.
While the previous meetings were led by a hired facilitator, this time the council members were on their own.
Not unlike the previous meetings held of this type, the council scheduled the special meeting on the heels of several particularly disruptive meetings.
Voices were raised within the first 20 minutes of the July 15 council meeting. Seventeen minutes into the meeting, a resident called Councilman Meyering a “disgrace.” In response, Meyering said the man’s comments were “orchestrated” by the council majority.
Ongoing disruptions–including arguing over others and accusing others of accepting “sweetheart deals”–led to the censuring of Meyering in May 2013. The censure served as an official statement of disapproval, but did not affect Meyering’s ability to vote on issues.
In a relatively calm roundtable discussion, council members went around the table Aug. 12 and took turns speaking. Tension between Mayor Jim Griffith and Meyering was palpable. Both declined to share any comments to get the conversation off the ground.
Councilwoman Tara Martin-Milius got the ball rolling by suggesting that rather than name-calling and talking about other people that council members and members of the public should stick to the issues at hand.
Councilman David Whittum said he felt the council had been doing a better job about this, but Councilman Glenn Hendricks stated he felt like the council wasn’t in agreement on policies regarding council meeting protocol.
Tools such as “point of order” or “point of information” are often used during a council meeting in order to get things back on track, but Hendricks said he felt like these tools can and do add to the disruption. Rather, he suggested council members simply need to abide by council policy.
According to city policy, meetings will be chaired and presided over by the mayor, who in turn shall be guided by the Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure (Sturgis), and the City’s Code of Ethics and Conduct for Elected and Appointed Officials.
The city attorney serves as advisory parliamentarian to the mayor and any ruling by the mayor that is challenged and seconded may be overruled by a majority vote of the council.
“When something is on topic or off, the mayor makes the call and if council members don’t like it, a majority can override the mayor,” Griffith said during the meeting. “That’s the way it’s supposed to work. But saying, ‘No, I’m not going to listen to the mayor; no, I’m not going to call for a majority vote, I’m just going to disregard what the mayor is saying,’ there’s no way a meeting can run smoothly when that happens.”
Meyering disagreed.
“First of all, the mayor is chosen by him voting for himself and three other people; there’s no magic sanctity or wisdom imparted through that mechanism,” Meyering said.
“The statement that no one is given authority except by the majority is completely false and inconsistent with a couple hundred years of American democracy,” Meyering added.
Meyering cited one occasion where a council member made a motion to cut off debate, thus cutting off Meyering, and the motion was immediately seconded and unanimously approved.
“These vague phrases of having a smooth meeting don’t give anybody the right, even if it’s a 6-1 vote, to cut off the minority,” Meyering said. “This is a bizarre discussion where we’re talking about the majority can do this, the majority can do that. The majority is limited.”
Martin-Milius disagreed.
“Democracy works for me because the majority sets the rules and we abide by those rules. Even though we may not like those rules, they are necessary because that’s the guiding principal of what democracy is,” Martin-Milius said.
Councilman Hendricks said he would reserve any further comments about council protocol for a future, similar discussion.
