League Pursues Changes to New City Council Rules
The members of the 2023-2027 City Council are scheduled to be sworn in and hold their first City Council meeting on Monday, May 15. LWV Chicago has contacted each of them urging that changes be made to the new set of Rules of Order and Procedure for the 2023-2027 Council, which the outgoing Council approved on March 30. The League understands that the incoming Council will need to vote on these new Rules.
The League’s suggested changes are for the purposes of
Increasing transparency
Providing the public with a true opportunity to give input to their elected representatives prior to a vote
Read the letter and full set of suggested changes.
The highest priority for the League is that the new Rules be changed to provide for a minimum notice period of four business days for Committee meetings and agendas, consistent with that used by the Cook County Board. Currently, the notice period is only 48 hours. The public posting system of agendas for the City Council sends out electronic notices when something has been posted, but not until the early morning hours the day after the posting. If the agenda is posted by the minimum 48 hours prior to the actual meeting of that Committee, the result is the deadline for providing comments on an agenda item (usually 24 hours prior to the meeting) will normally have already passed by the time someone sees that there is a meeting and what is on the agenda.
For example, under the existing Rules, if a Committee meeting is set for 10 am on a Thursday, the notice of the meeting and the agenda must be posted by 10 am on the prior Tuesday. A member of the public who has signed up to receive electronic notices of postings for that Committee will receive the notice at around 3 am on Wednesday, and that notice will state that comments are due by 10 am that same Wednesday.
The League’s City Government Committee will be watching to see what happens regarding the new Rules and will publish updates for the public.