Out of order

Council works to update agenda

The Newcastle City Council is updating the board’s agenda ordinance, and in the course of doing so they are also trying to streamline the process for future boards. Currently, the process to change the standard order of council agendas takes three readings, according to Clerk-Treasurer Stacy Haggerty, and the current exercise began when Councilman Tyrel Owens first made a motion on Feb. 20 to move the standing committee reports to precede the department head reports on the agenda.

“I think this would streamline our meetings a little more,” Owens said at the time, noting that he believes the council would avoid stepping on department head reports because their reports would be out of the way.

It was then that Haggerty pointed out there was an ordinance regarding the agenda, and that it was likely the council would need to draft a new ordinance to make the change he proposed.

City Attorney Dublin Hughes supported moving forward with the idea, stating that while there are no teeth to the agenda ordinance, it would lay out the agenda order for future boards.

“It would be good to have it put into ordinance,” he said.

On March 4, the council approved the updated ordinance on first reading, but it was noted before approval by Mayor Pam Gualtieri that the council does not now do an invocation, or prayer, to start each meeting. She indicated that she is unsure when this changed and would like to see it return.

(As previously reported by the News Letter Journal, the invocation was discontinued in 2019 at the suggestion of then-Mayor Deb Piana. The Weston County commissioners also removed prayer from their meetings at this time, although they officially voted to bring back the invocation in 2024.)

Before approval of the ordinance, Gualtieri also suggested that old business and new business be moved so that they precede committee reports at the beginning of the meeting, instead of toward the end.

Haggerty told the News Letter Journal a day after the council’s March 18 meeting that the group had also agreed on second reading to add the Pledge of Allegiance to item A along with the invocation.

Another update to the ordinance, according to Hughes, is the ability for future councils to change the agenda by use of a simple resolution, rather than requiring passage of an ordinance. This will allow future councils to avoid the “whole reading” process that is currently being undertaken when they wish to make changes to their agenda order.

Third and final reading of the new agenda ordinance is up for consideration on April 1.

What’s the agenda?

As presented, the updated agenda will have the mayor or presiding officer first calling  the meeting to order. Then, the proper business will include, in this order:

A. Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance

B. Council approval of agenda

C. Council amendment and approval of minutes of the last regular meeting and of all intervening special or emergency meetings

D. Citizens’ oral business

E. Citizens’ written business

F. Old Business

G. New Business

H. Committee reports

I. Department head reports

J. Claims against the city

K. Adjournment