Items on whether to use Robert’s Rules of Order, rules on decorum and council members being physically present on the dais instead of video conferencing were discussed at length. The three agenda items were discussed together for nearly two hours.
“The thing about Robert's Rules of Order was really to address the time we're spending on the agenda. Now, Robert's Rules of Order is a very formal way to hold a meeting,” Council Member Jude Prather said. “The idea would be that, you know, if we limit to 10 minutes per council member, that we're looking at about an hour right there, so we're looking at at maximum an hour and a half on agenda items,” he said.
Prather added that he is not looking to limit debate but keep the meetings moving at a more regular pace, and Council Member Shane Scott echoed Prather’s suggestion.
San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson said that she did not believe limiting time would work and that it might be an added struggle to debate, with arguments over who may or may not have allotted more time.
“This is my 14th year on city council—[19]96-2002 and 2014 to now. I have served with 26 different council members. So I've got some experience, and I'm going to share my observations, thoughts and recommendations,” Hughson said.
Hughson said council members should take personal responsibility with being prepared for meetings to make them more concise.
“If you want shorter council meetings, please look in the mirror first and think about how you can be a responsible council member,” she said.
Council Member Mark Gleason said that while he appreciates the motivation behind creating a limit, it could prevent council members learning and deliberating in a positive way.
“You may bring something to the table that I'm not aware of even if it didn't get put on the message board. We didn't get a chance to hash that out as a group. And I don't want to limit the discussion in any way shape or form. Because a lot of what we do is compromise, right?” Gleason said.
Council Member Maxfield Baker took issue with implementing Robert’s Rules of Order, calling them a form of oppression.
“I’ve [previously] made my thoughts pretty clear. Robert's Rules of Order—and again, there's no oversight—it's not the only thing we have to do but they are a form of oppression. They are historically used to limit debate so that people with impassioned speeches are cut short and not given the opportunity to speak more and are able to be dismissed for speaking too angrily or something like that,” Baker said.
Council Member Alyssa Garza said that a more formal layout of rules in some form could be beneficial for the operations of meetings.
“I think it's important that [Hughson] emphasize being prepared for these. And just generally, it is my perception that there's a fundamental lack of equal application of rules, norms, ... like we're doing this because they've always been done,” Garza said.
Concerns raised with virtual meeting attendance
Gleason said he believes the council could regain better comity if everyone was required to attend in person again, and that the COVID-19 pandemic removed a lot of needed interpersonal connections.
“I do think it will help for all of us to be together here. I think a big part is we've kind of gotten away from the humanization side of things. Look, we break bread together between our meetings. We sit side by side, we remember that. And I think that's extremely important to the community and for how we handle ourselves,” Gleason said.
Baker is currently the only member of the council who continues to use video conferencing for council meetings. Most city staff also continue to attend virtually, and public comment sections of the meeting allow for both virtual and in-person sign up.
“I'm worried about losing Zoom access not only for our community, but for ourselves. That if one of us got diagnosed with cancer out of nowhere and our immune system was compromised and we didn't want to go sit in tonight's [meeting], we should have the ability ... as often all the time, no matter what,” he said.
While no action was taken, the mayor took notes on preferences on rules to apply from each council member to create a binding rules ordinance for them to vote on at a later date.
