What are the rules at Longview City Council meetings? | #citycouncil

Most of the recent debate has centered around a last-minute resolution Keith Young unsuccessfully proposed at the end of the Feb. 8 council meeting, which was later revealed through a public records request to be an audit on the assistant city manager’s time. There was also a last-minute executive session added to the end of the Jan. 25 meeting and another session that was pulled from the agenda of the Feb. 22 meeting.

All new city councilmembers receive training at the local and state level to keep their actions in local government above board. Those expectations come from a mix of state requirements, rules set by previous city councils and broad recommendations for what the best practices are.

Ironically, the explanations for Longview’s new councilmembers are more concise and organized now than they have been for years. In December, City Manager Kris Swanson shortened the binder containing decades of scattered rulings and guidelines into a 44-page protocol manual for the Longview City Council.

“These are things that have been adopted along the way for years and years but we never had a single source to onboard new council members,” Swanson said.

State law requires that a preliminary version of the agenda, including resolutions that will be voted on, is posted at least 24 hours before the council meeting. Few rules are in place for how the agenda can be changed after that point.

According to the Municipal Research and Services Center, which advises many local governments in Washington, there is no state requirement for information packets and material to be made available to the public before the council votes.

Longview’s policy manual states that items placed on the agenda should be provided to the city manager or city clerk at least 10 days ahead of time. City staff is required to submit any agenda summaries and documents for items related to their department at least one week before the next council meeting.

Longview’s practice of avoiding surprise votes dates back to at least 2000, according to council minutes, as a best practice to keep other councilmembers and the city manager in the loop.

“To avoid surprise and allow for staff preparation, if necessary, Council members are highly encouraged to notify the City Manager and Mayor of any anticipated agenda modifications in advance of the meeting,” the council manual states.

When Kurt Sacha was the city manager from 2018 to 2023, he said he would discuss the upcoming agendas with the mayor and mayor pro tem ahead of time to limit the number of last-minute changes. If councilmembers wanted to vote on a new issue during the meeting, Sacha said that topic would be discussed but not finalized until the next meeting.

“That’s to avoid the no-surprise rule and that was true of staff as well. They can’t generally put things on the agenda without (the council’s) knowledge,” Sacha said.

Longview’s council meetings do include a time near the beginning for any final additions, removals or other changes to the agenda. There are few limits on agenda changes made at that point of the meeting as long as a majority of councilmembers to vote for them.

Most resolutions are written by the city manager, city attorney and other staff directors depending on the issue but that is not a requirement. Any item can be considered at a council meeting if it gets the signatures of two council members ahead of time.

Any resolution or ordinance introduced this way still needs to be approved by the city attorney ahead of time for their “form and legality,” according to the council manual.

Signature-driven agenda items are not common in Longview but happen frequently in Kelso. At the Feb. 20 Kelso City Council meeting, for instance, there were two discussion items put to the agenda because councilmembers Jim Hill and Keenan Harvey asked for them to be included. Andy Hamilton said during the meeting he didn’t know the full details of the issues and threw to Harvey to explain further.

State rules for government meetings are enforced through the Open Public Meetings Act. Officials can be sued for violating the act, but could also be investigated by the county prosecutor’s office. Both the court system and King County Sheriff investigated the Seattle mayor’s deleted text messages in 2020.

Swanson and Sacha said the city-specific rules for local meetings are self-governing, relying on the councilmembers and the city attorney to enforce the decisions. Longview city attorney Dana Gigler said during the Feb. 8 meeting that she doesn’t recommend adding agenda items at the tail end of meetings and very strongly doesn’t recommend voting on resolutions that have not been noticed ahead of time.

Executive sessions are the way local governments can discuss, but not vote on, a short list of potentially sensitive issues. State law requires the broad topic and duration of an executive session to be announced ahead of time and limits the topics that can be discussed during those meetings.

The MRSC tip sheet for local governments says “the agency can go into executive session even if one was not noticed.” Longview’s council manual does not include any further rules or limits for executive sessions.