Monterey Board of Mayor and Aldermen formalizing a new ordinance to establish regular public work sessions held one week prior to its monthly voting meetings to improve board preparedness and transparency.
City Administrator Rafferty Cleary said the town is updating its municipal code to reflect the new meeting schedule because existing language only accounted for the regular sessions held on the first Monday of each month. Rafferty Cleary said the board completed the first two readings of the ordinance in August and expects to hold the third and final reading during the September meeting.
“The general reason for doing this is just to keep board members informed with as much information as possible leading into these meetings,” Cleary said, “That way they’re not showing up on a Monday night and not really sure why something’s on the agenda.”
Cleary said the board previously encountered situations where items appeared on the agenda with only a few minutes of notice for discussion. Cleary said the new format allows for longer discussions and more detailed questioning of city staff before a final vote is required.
“I think the general feeling from some was that they weren’t very prepared to make decisions on the spot and so hopefully these work sessions will provide an opportunity for longer discussion, more questions to be asked so they can be better prepared at those meetings the first Monday of each month,” Cleary said.
Cleary said the work sessions will be open to the public and will follow the same 7 p.m. start time as regular meetings to maintain continuity. Cleary said the town will advertise the sessions and provide agendas, noting that public comment will be included just as it is for other municipal meetings.
“You can’t deliberate, you can’t make votes,” Cleary said. “This is simply a chance to get informed and to ask questions and that’s how that’s what they’re designed to do and that’s how we’ll be moving those meetings forward each time.”
Rafferty Cleary said the sessions provide a platform for elected officials to see the amount of work performed behind the scenes by city employees and department heads. Cleary said City Recorder Ella Dishman will attend the sessions to record official minutes.
“We hope that our elected officials see just how much work goes on behind the scenes from our employees and department heads and why things appear on the agenda when they do,” Cleary said. “Obviously sometimes people see, residents, constituency, agenda items and have questions on them leading up to the meeting and so these work sessions will have an opportunity for our elected officials to gather information, report to their constituents ahead of the meeting times to give them an idea of what’s on there.”
Cleary said Monterey is joining other nearby municipalities, such as Cookeville and Algood, that already utilize work sessions to review agenda items.
“Again, this is more, this is some language clean-up in our existing ordinance just reflecting that we will be meeting days ahead and then the biggest thing is this is just simply to get more information to our elected officials so they can be better prepared to make decisions,” Cleary said.
