City Council Might Censure Members For Disparaging Others, Under Proposed New Policies
Written by 991KBU on March 19, 2021
Some big changes proposed in the way Malibu city hall is run … including the possibility of an official censure resolution aimed at disruptive councilmembers.
Two city council members propose junking the accumulation of city council policies that have been added to a list of official city policies over the last 29 years.
Council members Karen Farrer and Paul Grisanti have come up with the list … after a bitter political fight with city council members Bruve Silverstein and Steve Uhring.
Silverstein and Uhring were rebuffed in trying to get onto the two person-committee rewritimg the policies.
Farrer and Grisanti are proposing a laundry list of changes … most of them junking old policies and instead proposing that the city council adopt those concepts by resolution.
But one major change … a proposal to allow a majority of the city council to vote to censure a councilmember who violates the proposed rules.
And among the proposed new policies … from Farrer and Grisanti:
The Council and City Manager will work together as a solution-oriented team.
Councilmembers will keep a friendly, professional relationship with staff members.
All dealings with the City Manager, whether in public or private, should respect the authority of the City Manager in administrative matters.
Endeavor not to burden the City Manager or staff with demands for individual time or attention on matters that the City Manager can better handle with general communications to the City Council as a whole
Discussing dfficult questions … wonderful.
But the proposed policy would not allow council members to make belligerent, personal, impertinent, slanderous, threatening, abusive, or disparaging comments.
Who would judge that?
The other council members.
And they could vote to officialy censure a violation on that policy.
Another proposed policy: Council members should avoid situations that can result in the City staff being directed by one or two members of the Council.
One issue that has been pushed off … the city’s current Public Records Management Policy.
The current records retention policy dates from 25 hears ago … when floppy disks were used for storage … it has the city deleting its emails.
Public access advocates say that is outoutmoded.
Farrer and Grisanti will review the City’s records retention schedules and email policies … and come up with a plan later. These are some big proposed changes … the agenda was posted just two business days before it will be discussed. That would be next Monday … 4 p-m … on the city’s Zoom platform.
Link to city agenda:
https://www.malibucity.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03222021-1660
