Have you ever had one of those “aha” experiences where you discover something that you think is interesting and unique, but then later found out that everyone else already knew about it, and it’s actually not all that interesting and unique? For me, it was my “discovery” of Swedish Fish, but that’s a story for another day. Boy, are they ever good though. Another time….
I think that we may be observing Star Tribune writer David Peterson in the 1st stage of this “aha” scenario process. In an article he wrote for today’s paper entitled “Government at work, out of sight” Mr. Peterson shares his own Swedish Fish-like moment with us regarding his discovery of the City Council/County Commission Work Session.
Well, I hate to break it to Mr. Peterson, or anyone else for that matter, but the City Council Workshop, or Work Session, or Study Session – whatever a given group decides to call it – is nothing new. I’ve been in the city manager business for twenty years in four different cities, and this format for a legal gathering of local government officials has been a part of every city government where I’ve worked. I have not observed with any greater or lesser frequency today compared to years gone by. It’s nothing new, and it’s nothing to be scared of.
A workshop, work session or study session of the City Council is really nothing more than a City Council meeting with different meeting protocol. Decisions can be made at Council workshops, as long as those workshops meet the criteria of a lawful meeting – which they better. Many City Councils, including Eden Prairie’s, have adopted their own rules and customs that say they will not make decisions in a workshop. They’ll discuss issues; hear staff comments and recommendations; but they will not vote on an issue in a workshop setting.
Typically, in Eden Prairie, staff recommend an annual line-up of workshop topics at the first Council meeting of the year when the Council sets its official meeting schedule for the year. The list of topics comes from suggestions from the Council and also recommendations from City staff. We may vary from the approved line-up during the year, but when we do, we take care to provide legal public notice, etc.
We do not televise our Council workshops. Never have. I hope we don’t start. The workshop provides a less formal atmosphere for Council Members to learn about a topic – with an emphasis on the word learn. Many times, the workshop is the first opportunity a Council Member has to hear the details of a policy matter or hear the reasons why the City ought to (or ought not to) be involved in an issue. I believe that televising these workshops would not enhance the learning process for the Council Members. How many of us would like to learn on live local access cable television? Not many, I’ll bet.
Our workshops are advertised properly. The public attends our workshops regularly. There aren’t usually very many people in the audience, but they are welcome and there are plenty of seats. If anyone is interested in our workshop agendas, you can find them at our website at www.edenprairie.org.
Mr. Peterson implies that elected bodies are using the workshop format as a means of avoiding the public and of being less accountable. I don’t claim to know the intent of every elected local government official in our state, but I can’t believe Mr. Peterson’s thesis is true. Personally, I think it’s not even close. I will concede that occasionally City Councils like to table difficult issues at a Council meeting to a future workshop for more discussion. We haven’t done that recently in Eden Prairie, but we’ve done it. I will say though that every time we’ve done it, the decision that resulted was probably better and gathered more Council support because we took more time to research and understand the issues at hand. And, I must add, that every time we’ve done it, it’s been done in public according to the laws of our state.
Being a locally elected official in Minnesota is not easy. We ask a lot of our elected officials. But, it’s fair bargain if there is something of value in it for the public. Asking our elected officials to do everything they do to be on live local television is not reasonable. State law requires that City Councils make their decisions in an open and public manner. If a City Council is breaking this law, they should be punished. A Council making its decisions in an open manner may certainly be subject to criticism for its decision, but does it have to be taken to task for not broadcasting every shred of discussion on local access cable television? I would hope not. It’s not easy being a local elected official. Going that direction won’t make it any easier.
