ST. GEORGE — City Council meetings could soon take on a more formal tone.
During a work meeting of the St. George City Council held last Thursday, attorneys with the city’s legal department gave council members copies of “Robert’s Rules of Order.” The book has long been a guideline on how to run administrative meetings and how officials in those meetings should conduct themselves.
Rules laid out in the book are followed to various degrees by entities like the Washington County Commission, Utah Legislature, Congress and other governmental and administrative bodies.
Deputy City Attorney Jami Brackin told the City Council that, while the city practiced aspects of Robert’s Rules, the legal department was proposing the city formally adopt and codify additional practices from the book.
The reason for this was so the city has a more official policy on how meetings are held and how members of the council and the public are to conduct themselves.
If adopted, the rules would provide a somewhat more formal framework for the meetings, Brackin said. One of the most notable differences would be for council members to formally address the mayor as they seek permission to be recognized and speak.
“Make all comments to the mayor,” Brackin said. “The mayor is in charge of decorum and running the meeting.”
Mayor Michele Randall would be referred to as “Madam Mayor” in much the same fashion as the Speaker of the House in the Utah Legislature or Congress is referred to as “Mr. or Madam Speaker.”
“If we go this direction, it’s going to be really clunky at first,” City Manager John Willis said.
Council member Jimmie Hughes said he worried about meetings becoming too formal and giving the council an appearance “of being above the public.”
Along with the proposed adoption of Robert’s Rules, Brackin also outlined rules of civility for the council to follow during public meetings.
Among these rules were instructions for council members to conduct themselves in the “legitimate interests of the city without ill will or animus toward the public, staff members, or other Council members,” keeping all public discussion civil, keeping on topic while discussing an agenda item, and not attributing “improper motives to another without a factual basis, and never in a public meeting.”
Members of the public will also be expected to conduct themselves in a civil manner outlined by the mayor at the beginning of public hearings and input sessions, Brackin said.
The proposed rules of civility and use of Robert’s Rules are also meant to help keep “the meeting a meeting and not a show,” she said.
While regular council meetings – the meetings held in the council chambers where voting takes place – would become subject to Robert’s Rules if adopted, Randall and other members of the council expressed a desire to keep the work meetings informal.
The proposal could be put before the City Council for a vote in the near future.
Photo Gallery
Rules of civility proposed for St. George City Council members to follow during city Council meetings, Jan. 12, 2023 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Rules of civility proposed for St. George City Council members to follow during city Council meetings, Jan. 12, 2023 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Rules of civility proposed for St. George City Council members to follow during city Council meetings, Jan. 12, 2023 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Members of the St. George City Council are given a presentation on proposed rules of conduct and civility for council meetings, Jan. 12, 2023 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
Members of the St. George City Council are given a presentation on proposed rules of conduct and civility for council meetings, Jan. 12, 2023 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
St. George City Councilman Jimmie Hughes said he wonders if adopting more formal council procedure may give the public a feeling the council thinks they are above them, St. George, Jan. 12, 2023 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News
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