In a 4-1 vote on Tuesday, March 22, the Irvine City Council voted to change ordinances with the goal of creating more efficiency during city council meetings. 

In addition to making alterations to the council’s agenda publishing schedule, the council also discussed shortening public comments, but did not agree to do so.  

In his presentation to the council, Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi explained that the frequency of agenda publications has become a noticeable bottleneck for city staff, with supplemental agendas coming out nearly two weeks before the actual meeting.

“In practice, what ends up happening is on a Tuesday, in addition to coordinating the council meeting internally, we’re also thinking about the Thursday agenda publication for a meeting that’s two weeks out,” Chi said. “It does become a little unwieldy at times, as it relates to what’s actually going to be on an agenda.”

Chi said this can lead to transparency issues when determining what is on the final agenda for Tuesday meetings.

Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan explained that these changes began taking shape in November when a subcommittee was formed to help alleviate the challenges city staff was experiencing.  

“When we first brought this item in November, it was to ensure that we were providing the public with a transparent process and ample opportunity to review the agenda in its entirety. Currently, city staff does not have the capacity to provide many of the substantial reports the council asks for with the agenda due to the way the rules are structured,” Khan said. “This council… is not actively working to silence the public or do anything in secret. We are simply looking to provide the best possible and complete agenda on time.”

Another focus of the discussion was the time allotted for public comments. At one point, the council discussed creating a three-minute maximum time limit for each speaker for the duration of the meeting. 

Instead of limiting the time, the council agreed to move the public comment section to the beginning of the meeting, and start the meeting one hour later. The changes would take effect beginning at the council’s next meeting in April. The council also updated emails to an unlimited number of characters. 

During the meeting, several speakers addressed the proposed change, saying that it limits transparency and does not give the public enough time to address the council. 

After the meeting, Irvine Weekly spoke to Khan for more on why the council decided to not limit public comments.   

“The changes we made are not out of the ordinary. In the past, councils have made changes to how the agendas were organized or when the public speakers would be speaking. I had some very good conversations with our residents outside of the public speakers before the meeting and had an idea of what would be a good way to update our policies to provide for better meetings while continuing to be responsive to the public,” Khan said in a text message with Irvine Weekly. “We are continuing to offer a variety of ways for the public to provide comments like extended emails, e-comments, phone-in comments and in-person comments with three minutes for each item.”

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting Irvine Weekly and our advertisers.