‘Council of Errors’ Coming to Hometown Legislative Action Day

From personal attacks among councilmembers to arguments with the news media to improper votes or public testimony, there are many ways for a city council meeting to go wrong. During the Municipal Association’s Hometown Legislative Action Day in Columbia on February 7, a mock city council will try to find all of them. 

 

The “Council of Errors” will be a public meeting that comically finds the worst-case scenario for many issues of municipal government, with various officials and Municipal Association staff stepping into the roles of not only the councilmembers, but also the city’s attorney, clerk and even members of the media and angry residents. Meeting attendees will discuss the ways in which the meeting has failed to follow state law or has otherwise gone wrong.

 

For HLAD attendees looking to spot as many errors as they can during the session, here’s a review of a handful of the problems that may arise. Learn more about many of these issues in the How to Conduct Effective Meetings. handbook.

 

Once a meeting agenda is posted, no items may be added without an official posting of an additional 24-hour public notice. During the meeting itself, councilmembers may only add agenda items according to specific rules. 

 

For an information-only item, council only needs to follow its adopted rules of procedure for adding items. An action item, which is not a final action and for which public comment has been or will be received at a publicly noticed meeting, may be added to the agenda by a two-thirds vote of the members present and voting. For an action item on final vote and with no opportunity for public comment, the item may be added by a two-thirds vote of members present and voting, and “a finding of an emergency or exigent circumstances,” according to SC Code Section 30-4-80(A).  

 

Calling an executive session 

The SC Freedom of Information Act authorizes closed-to-the-public executive sessions under particular circumstances. The council cannot take any action in executive session except to adjourn or to return to public session. The council must vote to enter executive session, and the presiding officer must announce the session’s specific purpose following the language in SC Code Section 30-4-70(A) as closely as possible. 

 

State law requires public hearings for adopting an annual budget or adopting new service or user fees, but it does not require dedicated public comment periods for all meetings. When councils choose to adopt public comment periods in their rules of procedure, they should lay out the expectations for how the sessions will work and the commenter’s conduct. Once the rules exist, the presiding officer should be careful to apply them consistently to all speakers. 

 

Breakdowns in civil discourse have grown more common in public meetings and other aspects of public life, and so the Municipal Association has taken on restoring civility in local government as a priority. It has created resources such as the “pillars of civility,” which are numerous key points to consider when working to keep meetings calm and on track, as well as a civility pledge that councils can use as a reminder at the beginning of their meetings. 

 

These resources, which can help both in a “council of errors” meeting and at real-life meetings, can be found on the Association's website.