More Meetings & Reasons Why Meetings Are Not Noticed Earlier

I started asking the staff who can’t get their agendas to the clerk’s office by noon on Friday . . . why?

WEDNESDAY
Meeting: MINORITY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Date: 10/13/2010 10:30 AM
Location: ROOM LL-130

MADISON’S CENTRAL BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (BID) NOMINATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE
Date: 10/13/2010 3:30 PM
Location: 122 W WASHINGTON AVE, SUITE 250 CONFERENCE RM

THURSDAY
Meeting: BOARD OF HEALTH FOR MADISON AND DANE COUNTY
Date: 10/14/2010 5:30 PM
Location: 119 E OLIN AVE, ROOMS A & B

WHY CAN’T THE MEETING AGENDAS GET IN ON TIME?
Answer 1:

This was my oversight at the end of last week, not to have sent it to the meeting schedule when it was created.

Answer 2:

It appears that the meeting was noticed 24 hours in advance as required by the APM. However, this meeting is somewhat irregular and should have been noticed as ‘notice for possible quorum.’ This is not a regular City committee meeting but an open membership call hosted by the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium (http://buysweatfree.org/). Unfortunately, the agenda was not complete because the call-in information was not made available to us until late Monday afternoon. The following statement was also inadvertently omitted from the agenda.

This is a meeting of the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium, not the City of Madison Committee on Sweatfree Purchases. A quorum of the Committee on Sweatfree Purchases may participate in this conference call. The committee will not be taking any action during this call. Members of the public may access the call in Room 414 of the City-County Building, where a speakerphone will be set up.

In the end, this conference call is being cancelled for today and rescheduled for 10/20. I was out of the office on Monday and was unable to notice this properly but will ensure that future meetings will be. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Answer 3:

Brenda – an MPD civilian does all the agenda posting, etc….can you let me know specifically what the issues are? Thanks

My reply

People who need interpreters or assistance at the meeting due to a disability need to contact you 3 days in advance according to the agenda . . . and this meeting wasn’t posted soon enough for someone to notify you. Additionally, the APM says the meetings should be to the clerks office by noon on Friday so they can be scheduled with the weekly schedule when it comes out.

Response

The APM indicates that the language regarding interpreter assistance is provided by Affirmative Action (I presume Civil Rights now does it)….the same boilerplate language is used for all agendas….I can check with them to see if the language can be changed to be consistent with the 24 hour notice requirement.

The APM seems to conflict with itself (the 24 hour notice requirement and the prior week City Clerk notice)…this is obviously outside the scope of MPD but I will forward the concerns on.

Answer 4:
Still waiting . . .

And, I just got done asking three more.

I think this is an issue of training. But I’m not entirely clear. It also occurs to me that someone should be reviewing the agendas, likely the chair of the committees and in some cases, the department heads or others who actually attend the meetings and staff them, as opposed to those departments who have the luxury of having an independent minute taker and staff to do the work for them.