All six Ford City Borough Council elected officials were in attendance last night, and approved for the future use of a consent agenda to approve routine agenda items.
by Jonathan Weaver
Ford City Borough Council members formally approved an upcoming change to the appearance of future agenda items.
By a unanimous 6-0 vote, council members approved the use of consent agendas at future sessions.
During the regularly-scheduled business meeting held three weeks ago, Solicitor Alyssa E. Golfieri recommended the consent agenda usage after she attended the regular council meeting January 9.
“Consent agendas are line agenda items on a regular meeting agenda at which council can take any routine, non-controversial items, group them under this consent agenda line-item and then approve that item by one vote,” Golfieri said. “(In Allegheny County), both councils’ board of supervisors and the public enjoy them (is) for the purpose that these consent agendas open up time to discuss more substantive, important items on the agenda and really eliminate everyone sitting through the mundane.”
Golfieri said the consent agenda does not affect public participation, and council members reiterated this last night. Consent agenda items are attached to the back of a regular agenda and still available for review.
“With respect to the type of issues you see on a consent agenda, (some of these include) approval of minutes, approval of routine bills, maybe policies or regulations that are discussed month after month after council has reached a consensus, public comment has been received and it is the mere-adoption,” Golfieri said. “Any item that usually appears on a consent agenda is not one in which there could be a potential or actual conflict of interest under the ethics act for any council member.”
Council Vice-President Tyson Klukan applauded his fellow council members.
“This is a good business move. It’s going to speed up, but also make business smoother during agendas,” Klukan said.
Elected officials are also able to move an item from the consent agenda back to the regular agenda at the request of any one member of Council, Council President Carol Fenyes read before last night’s approval. If not removed from the consent agenda, those items can be adopted without debate.