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40 CHAPTER 8 – COUNCIL COMMITTEES The City Council may organize among its members standing committees, each of which shall act as a fact-finding committee to consider all available information on proposed legislation or matters of policy referred to such committee by Council and making recommendations thereon to the Council as a whole. The Mayor shall assign each Councilmember to various standing committees. The assignments shall be ratified by the Council as a whole. The Mayor may also serve on various standing committees and be ratified by the Council as a whole. Participation and attendance at those committee meetings are important. Continued absences from meetings without good cause may result in removal from a committee at the discretion of the Mayor, taking into consideration advice from other committee members. From time-to-time ad hoc committees may be organized by the Mayor to address special concerns which may be of limited duration. It shall be the prerogative of the Mayor, taking into consideration relative length of Council service, individual Council Member preference and equivalency, to assign individual Council Members to these various committees. Normally appointments are for a one or two year periods but may be renewed at the Mayor’s discretion where Council Members have particular experience or expertise concerning the business of a particular committee. STANDING COMMITTEES The list of standing and Ad Hoc Committees and Committee assignments shall be revised from time to time as necessary. COUNCIL COMMITTEE MEETINGS It is the policy of the City Council that Council Committee meetings, as a general rule, be noticed and open to the public. A staff member shall be present at all committee meetings. It is also the policy of the City Council that all Council Committees adopt a schedule of regular meetings at least once a year, post a written agenda 72 hours before each of its regular meetings, limit discussion during its meetings to items on the posted agenda, provide an opportunity at the beginning of each meeting for comments from the public, and, if the committee elects to do so, adopt time limits for public comments at its regular meetings. Involuntarily adopting these procedural rules for its less-than-a-quorum committees, the City Council specifically declines to adopt the “cure and correct” provisions of the Brown Act for any purpose as to any action taken by a standing Council Committee. (The Brown Act, Chap. VII, 2.b) Previous restrictions within the Brown Act had prohibited a fourth member of a seven- member legislative body from attending a subcommittee meeting. The Attorney General considered the following exception to the definition of “meeting”: “The attendance of a majority of the members of a legislative body at an open and noticed meeting of another body of the local agency, provided that a majority of the members do DRAFT