City Council Committees

[Guest Mike W3]

Our City Government has a committee of the whole (COTW) as a committee of the City Council. We do not have a rule that items requiring a vote of the City Council need to pass the COTW before they maybe placed on the Council agenda. Our Mayor claims he controls the Council agenda and can place items on the agenda that have failed to pass in the COTW. Is there anything in Robert's Rules concerning committees? A note our City is in Illinois. 

[jstackpo]

Chances are that whatever RONR has to say about your committee(s) won't apply because you probably have city ordinances that control how an agenda is set up.  Does the mayor have a legal citation to back up his (her) claim of apparently absolute control over the agenda?

There is a LOT of text in RONR about committees in general including committee of the whole.  I'll leave reading that to you!

[Hieu H. Huynh]

I am curious about why a committee of the whole is being used by the city council.

[Rev Ed]

Also, check to see if anything has to go through the Committee of the Whole.  Normally, it would not.  Although once a motion (i.e. a proposal to do something) is made at a meeting of some Government bodies, the motion must go through a committee before a final decision is made.

[Guest Mike W3]

11 hours ago, Hieu H. Huynh said:

I am curious about why a committee of the whole is being used by the city council.

We a small city with only 6 Aldermen. We had various standing committees with 3 members. If there was 1 Alderman absent the committee would not have a        quorum. Since an Alderman could be a member of several committees it bogged the process down.

[Steven Britton]

11 hours ago, Hieu H. Huynh said:

I am curious about why a committee of the whole is being used by the city council.

Generally, to comply with public open meeting laws, some, municipal councils or boards provide for Formal Committee Of The Whole as a standing committee in its rules. This allows the municipal board or council to meet and use the device of Formal Committee of the Whole to plan and discuss pending business, when the business isn't quite ready for adoption at the regular meeting, and to comply with requirements of public open meeting laws.

[Rev Ed]

3 hours ago, Steven Britton said:

Generally, to comply with public open meeting laws, some, municipal councils or boards provide for Formal Committee Of The Whole as a standing committee in its rules. This allows the municipal board or council to meet and use the device of Formal Committee of the Whole to plan and discuss pending business, when the business isn't quite ready for adoption at the regular meeting, and to comply with requirements of public open meeting laws.

From what you said, it sounds like no motion has to be referred to the Committee of the Whole, although motions could certainly come out of it.

[Steven Britton]

1 hour ago, Rev Ed said:

From what you said, it sounds like no motion has to be referred to the Committee of the Whole, although motions could certainly come out of it.

Generally, the council uses the committee of whole format as a planning meeting. When details concerning a specific item of business are sufficiently worked-out, the committee rises and reports the item is out of the standing committee of the whole and its moved to the regular meeting agenda for action. As far as the council referring business items to the COTW meeting, it would depend on the adopted rules. Generally, a different person, chairs the committee meeting.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

To answer the OP, nothing in RONR requires business to pass through a committee before it can be considered by the assembly, nor does RONR give the chairman (or president or mayor) the power to dictate the agenda.