Irvine City Council Limits Agenda Items to Those With Support by 2 Members
The freshly minted city council in Irvine, California, voted 4–1 on Dec. 8 to permanently extend a policy that requires two council members to support an item before it can be put on the agenda.
The idea is to efficiently limit council discussion to items that more than one member feels are of importance. However, opponents of the policy argue that an item may be of interest to only one member, but even so may be of interest to the thousands of residents that one member represents.
The limitation has been scrutinized by the public, both last year when it was first adopted and in recent months when the council was considering whether to let the rule expire (it was set to expire at the end of 2020). The topic received 91 electronic comments that were read aloud during the meeting. Many commenters voiced opposition.