Hyattsville Council Sets Agenda With New Tool

Since the new Hyattsville City Council took office in mid-May, city council members have increasingly been using resolutions introduced from the bench as a way to mandate its will. 

Such resolutions from the bench were rare under the previous city council, during the first two years of Mayor Marc Tartaro's administration. Back then, most measures considered by the city council first went through the city's Executive Committee, which includes the Mayor, the Council President, Vice President and city department heads, for review before being placed on a council agenda. 

The process by which measures were introduced from the executive committee to the city council agenda had been controversial at times, with some city council members complaining of delays in getting proposed measures out of the executive committee and onto a council agenda.

Despite complaints of delays, measures which made it out of the executive committee enjoyed the benefit of disclosure in council agendas and accompanying meeting packets, often with detailed staff memos laying out the nuts and bolts implications of each measure, allowing residents and politicos the ability to preview what was going to be considered by the city council at a particular meeting. 

Items introduced from the bench, on the other hand, do not enjoy the benefit of advance disclosure.

In interviews, Tartaro has been critical of the city council's recent propensity for introducing measures off the dais, saying it's not transparent. 

Council President Candace Hollingsworth agrees that it's not exactly transparent, but said that recent scrambling to get a budget approved has meant that expediency has been required at the expense of transparency.

"My quick answer is going to be no, it's not transparent" said Council President Candace Hollingsworth in an interview after last Thurday's city council meeting, which saw city elected leaders vote on five budget-related measures introduced that night from the bench. "We didn't have the full opportunity for the public to able to inspect the motions and to be able to come to the meetings and give their input." 

But Hollingsworth said that quick turnaround on budget-related items was made necessary by the time crunch which the city council has been under to get a budget passed before the start of the next fiscal year on July 1. 

Hollingsworth also noted that despite the budget deadline, which saw the city council schedule numerous special sessions throughout the last month to iron out budget details, the executive committee only met once in June. 

"The election by the Mayor to continue with the same schedule of executive committee meetings meant that we haven't had the ability to be transparent to the level that we are supposed to be," said Hollingsworth. "You know that people have things to consider. Perhaps you should add another executive meeting."