From meeting start time to the accessibility of the microphone, the Burien City Council’s April 27 study session centered on a fundamental question: how should a modern city conduct its business?
The meeting tackled a wide-ranging agenda of procedural housekeeping with significant implications for civic engagement, including potential overhauls to public comment rules, the future of Native Land Acknowledgement, and the ongoing debate over a start time that often clashes with the reality of commuting.
As the council weighed administrative efficiency against community inclusivity, the session highlighted a city in the midst of refining its post-pandemic identity.
As this was a study session, no formal votes were taken, but the council made decisions on things they’d like to vote on in the future.
Public Comments
Commenters at study sessions are asked to limit comments to the meeting’s agenda topics, which at this meeting include council rules of order and the city budget. Speakers asked the council to eliminate the newer requirement that community members sign up at least an hour in advance of the meeting to give public comment. One said that this requires the use of a computer, which not everyone has access to.
A community member asked members of the council to actually study Robert’s Rules of Order, and claimed these rules are not being followed properly during council meetings. One speaker asked that meetings be held later in the evening, as 5:30 p.m. is a difficult time for commuters to attend. She made this comment by Zoom from her car, during her commute home from work. Another speaker said councilmembers should be expected to attend each meeting in person.
Native Land & Peoples Acknowledgement
The council has been considering removing the reading of the Native Land & Peoples Acknowledgement from every meeting’s agenda, in order to streamline meetings. The Land Acknowledgement would still be up on the city website, and the city could potentially find more meaningful ways to recognize the tribe as well.
One city staff member said they had recently been in dialog with tribal representatives about this change, but that person is no longer with the city. Councilmember Linda Akey said she had heard the tribe doesn’t care if the Land Acknowledgement was actually read aloud, and that being up on the website would be enough. However, she said it would be meaningful to them to see some city parks given native names. It was discussed that these conversations with tribal representatives need to continue before making any changes.
Proclamations
The council discussed changes to the process for proclamations. Rather than reading the same proclamations every year, they could do a handful of regular proclamations and then add to that any that are requested by specific organizations each year. The council seemed to agree that a recipient should be present to accept these proclamations when they are read, though Councilmember Sam Mendez made sure councilmembers agreed that Zoom presence would be enough if accessibility was an issue.
Updates To Public Comments
First, the council agreed that the public should not have to wait through an executive session to give their comments, so Public Comments will likely be moved earlier in the schedule, before any executive session. The interim city attorney was also directed to create language that could protect meetings from intentionally disruptive “zoom bombing” during public comments, something which has not taken place in Burien but has happened elsewhere as a way to stall city business.
Commenters might no longer be prioritized by whether they are a resident, business owner, or worker in the city. Councilmembers seemed to agree that there is no reason to discriminate based on these qualities. One of the biggest potential changes to public comment is that commenters could soon be able to sign up to speak in person up to the meeting start time, rather than being required to sign up an hour in advance. This is something the public has long been asking for.
Meeting Start Time
The council only briefly discussed changing the meeting time, saving this for a bigger discussion with staff input at a regular meeting. Meeting times affect city staff, since staff presence is required, and the start time had been moved earlier some time ago in order to allow staff to end their work day before 10 p.m. However, there is some interest on the council for a later start time, to allow more public involvement.
Councilmember Alex Andrade said she felt that later meetings punish early risers, who may have trouble thinking clearly enough to make important decisions by 10 p.m. It was agreed to wait until the city has a permanent full-time city manager before changing the start time. Deputy Mayor Hugo Garcia added as an afterthought that the council should also consider meeting in another location in a different part of the city once a year. He did not say where, or how this would be undertaken.
Council Attendance
Zoom attendance was discussed, with Councilmember Sam Mendez arguing that in-person council attendance should be required except in rare cases. He said councilmembers actually being in the room was in the best interest of the public. Councilmember Andrade countered with the question that if in-person council attendance was required, would that also be true for staff members, who regularly participate via Zoom, or public commenters?
Mayor Sarah Moore said she was very torn on this. She said it was the first time in-person requirements were being discussed post-pandemic, and since then we have normalized a hybrid meeting culture. She mentioned that Zoom meetings allow members to be present whilst also attending to things like caregiving duties. Final decisions on these topics to come at a future regular business meeting.
Video
Watch full, raw video of this council meeting below:
