Mutual Respect

Understanding the role and scope of responsibility of the Council may sometimes appear to be a daunting task with the sometimes conflicting goals of properly representing the City, being concerned with the entire community, keeping the lines of communication open, being conscious of your relationship to the rest of the City Council and City staff, and establishing a good relationship with other members. Inappropriate actions at Council meetings will damage many relationships.
The Greek philosopher Theophrastus once noted that time is the most valuable thing a person can spend. Public meeting time is an exceptionally precious resource. Most local officials recognize this and avoid yielding to the temptation to grandstand.
The dictionary defines grandstanding as "playing or acting so as to impress on-lookers." Council meetings were not created as opportunities for council members to attempt to endear themselves to individuals or groups. The purpose of a council meeting is to accomplish the public's business as productively, efficiently and professionally as possible. Grandstanding is a subset of a larger category of problematic behavior which includes wasting meeting time with questions that would be unnecessary with advance preparation for the discussion or properly asked of staff before the meeting.
The individual council member cannot commit the City to positions without a vote or consent of the Council. Individual Council members should not attempt to direct staff themselves through these questions or imply Council positions to staff on issues without a Council vote. It is inappropriate to commit to things that the whole Council may not approve. Members should refer such matters to the administrative staff for review and either administrative or legislative action.
This also relates to bringing up citizen complaints at Council meetings… these should be handled as quickly and routinely as possible by proper referral to staff. Do not “invite” complaints to be dealt with at meetings. Council will not appreciate a “staged” show, and the complainant may not appreciate the delay involved. Many times these complaints require a change in City policy and should be handled through the correct policy development processes of the city.
Author John Updike observed, "A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience." Patience is the great lubricant of a civil society. To the extent that grandstanders and other meeting-time-wasters exhaust the public's and their colleagues' patience, the civility and health of our civic institutions is put at risk.
Governance of a City relies on the cooperative efforts of elected officials, who set policy, and City staff, who implement and administer the Council’s policies. Therefore, every effort should be made to be cooperative and show mutual respect for the contributions made by each individual for the good of the community.