Subcommittees and Tenant report out to the General Government & Planning Committee
Update 8/21:
After the Public Input report out at GG&P last Tuesday, the Subcommittee on Council Rules and Procedures gave a report out of their work as well. This group has been meeting to update and modernize Council rules and best practices to account for changes to processes over time. Some of the changes recommended include:
Tracking Government Resource Utilization
Office Space Policies
Social Media Policies
Neighborhood Development Fund Approvals
Council Chambers Seating Arrangement
Councilmembers expressed concern about a seating arrangement due to accessibility concerns and public image, where the left side of the dais (Districts 1-6, and 1 At-Large) would be majorly representative of marginalized identities, and the right side (Districts 7-12, and 1 At-Large) and would be mostly white representatives. The discussion over changes to Council Rules and Procedures will continue at the next GG&P Committee meeting on September 12, 2023.
The General Government & Planning Committee will hear reports from the Public Input Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Council Rules and Procedures. These subcommittees were formed back in February 2023 after CivicLex published our Public Input Report, which provided Council with a series of recommendations we developed based on survey data to improve public input.
The Public Input Subcommittee’s recommends several changes to public input, including:
Creating a Public Input webpage to allow for virtual public comment.
Creating a digital sign-in process for giving public comment.
Changing how many speakers can yield their time to a single person from four to two, reducing the total possible time one can speak from 15 minutes to 9 minutes.
Implementing new security measures.
After this report out, the Public Input Subcommittee will continue meeting to discuss further changes to the public comment process.
The Council Rules and Procedures Subcommittee will recommend a wide-array of changes, ranging from determining Councilmembers seating chart, how NDF funds can be used, tracking government purchases, and how many special recognitions are allowed in meetings.
If the General Government and Planning Committee accepts these changes, they will then be presented to the entire City Council for further review and discussion.
The GG&P Committee will also have a presentation on how Lexington renters are represented on LFUCG’s boards and commissions. Commissioner of Housing and Community Development Charlie Lanter will detail plans for the City to pilot a Tenant’s Advisory Board and a Landlord Advisory Board for one year, after which they will ask GG&P to review and consider making these boards permanent.
You can view all three presentations here. The General Government & Planning Committee will meet on Tuesday, August 15th at 1pm in Council Chambers. You can attend in person or watch live on LexTV.
