City Council Preview: New Mayor, Council Sworn In

As I went to pick-up Monday's city council meeting agenda, I noticed that the agendas are now available in zip format, making life easier for those who have Macs. Three cheers to the city for this change.

Normally in these blogs posts I will attempt to not only tell you what is going to happen, or what has happened, but my opinion on them. Since this is my first post, however, I am going for a more educational explanation of how the City Council meetings work.

The council meetings are broken into two main parts: pre-session meetings and formal council meetings. The idea behind pre-session meetings is to give a chance for the council members to gather information and act in a slightly less formal setting than the actual council meetings. These meetings start at 4:30 p.m., but normally between 4:30 and 6:30 the council meets in closed session. According to state law, there is a limited range of topics, such as lawsuits, that the council can discuss in closed session.

On the public pre-session agenda are two items: a discussion requested by about whether to add more streets to the 2011 repavement program and a discussion with the parking lot owner across from the library. In its current budget, the city decided not to renew the lease of 12 spaces in that lot. The owner of the lot is now proposing to reduce the rate by 2 percent in hopes the city reconsiders its lease. 

The regular meeting will see our new and  sworn in. I am excited to see , and assume their places on the council, though I do admit to being a bit sad to see Scott Levenfeld, and Larry Silberman step off the council. I am excited that Larry is staying involved with the city through work on the Library Board and, knowing Terri as I do, expect to continue to see her everywhere about town. 

Also stepping down, as becomes our first mayor, is Mayor Mike Belsky.  The mayor has been a advocate of many initatives that have benefited the city, with his work on sustainability perhaps being the best, and I can only hope that . Having worked with Nancy for the past couple of years on the Transportation Commission, I am excited and curious to see how she will guide our city and the council.

The swearing in happens after the omnibus portion of the agenda. The omnibus agenda items are those that are intended to be passed without discussion due to general agreement about their apporpirateness. Any council member can request an omnibus agenda item be pulled either for discussion, comment or question.

Many omnibus agenda items don't make for thrilling discussion, even if they're important.  An example of this would be approving the mayor as a signatory on the city's accounts.

Other items, on the other hand, are placed on the omnibus agenda with the expectation that they will not cause controversy, even if they are interesting.  An example of this would be the proposal to create a Commericial and Multi-Family Recycling Intern, to try and improve the rates of recycling.

It can be hard to predict what items will get pulled for further discussion.  Sometimes items get pulled simply because  a council member wants to comment on how great the initiative is. Othertimes it's to and spur discussion on a more complex item.

Some other items on the omnibus agenda would be some modifications of ordinances related to the new pedestrian overpass at Ravinia, allowing political signs or private fences, and approval of a new garden by the UPS Store/Viccinos shopping center.

I hope you choose to follow me on Twitter (LaneinHP) on Monday night as I will, as always, live tweet proceedings. Then check back here for any interesting information that comes out of the session.