Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council Regular Meeting of October 9, 2018
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UPDATE ON COMPLETION OF CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
(City Clerk Elaine Doerfling)
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Recommended Action:
Recommendation
City Clerk recommends that the City Council receive and file the report.
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Executive Summary:
As requested by the City Council at its June 6, 2018 meeting, this report provides a brief status update on the status of outstanding Council minutes, including the progress made to date and an estimated time of completion, which is end of calendar year 2018.
Background:
The City Clerk’s Department has been experiencing an increasing backlog of recorded minutes for Council-adjourned meetings over the course of the past two years. Following the June 6, 2018 meeting, the City Manager’s office offered assistance, with Assistant to the City Manager Nico De Anda-Scaia leading the effort, to develop a plan and process for closing this gap. Toward this end, both Departments have taken a few immediate actions:
1) Switched to action minutes to record minutes for past-due meetings. This allows the City to more efficiently chip away at the existing backlog and demonstrate progress to the City’s auditors, while maintaining full compliance with all legal standards and requirements.
2) Established an ‘assembly-line’ style system for processing and vetting minutes, with support from administrative staff from other departments.
3) Scheduled regular interdepartmental meetings with all Clerk’s Office staff and the Assistant to the City Manager to establish weekly goals and measure progress/performance.
4) Committed to preparing monthly activity reports for the City Clerk Department starting in July of this year consistent with all other City departments. These publicly accessible reports are posted on the City website and are intended to track benchmarks on a regular basis, such as progress on minutes as well as other activities that the Clerk’s Office handles. Executive Assistant to the City Manager Ann Yang provided valuable assistance by creating a template for the monthly activity report. This is a great step forward for the Clerk’s office and will be beneficial to the Council and the community.
As a result of these developments, in addition to other measures, the Clerk’s Department has begun to make progress on the recording/publishing of Council minutes. Five sets of minutes were presented for approval at each of the three Council meetings held in August and September, and seven have been included for Council’s approval at its October 9th meeting, leaving approximately 60 sets of minutes outstanding, down from approximately 94 at the time the City Manager’s Department originally became involved. Considering the type of many of the meetings remaining, such as non-action and closed session meetings, the City Clerk is confident that the minutes will be up-to-date no later than the end of the calendar year, and does not foresee any problem with keeping current from that point forward.
Prior to the backlog completion date, the City Clerk will submit an agenda item requesting Council direction and providing recommendations as to content and style of future minutes. Options may include keeping the style currently in use, returning to the format previously used, or a combination of both.
Attachments:
1. July 2018 Activity Report
2. August 2018 Activity Report
Respectfully Submitted by: Elaine Doerfling, City Clerk
Concur: Nico De Anda-Scaia, Assistant to the City Manager
Approved: Suja Lowenthal, City Manager