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An aide to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates says that a proposal to funnel all city commission reports through the City Council Agenda Committee is not as far-reaching as rumor appears to have it, and probably won’t be put into place “if it’s going to be controversial.” 

Last week, the Daily Planet received queries about possible plans by the Agenda Committee to review all commission reports before they land on City Council’s agenda. Currently, commission reports are automatically placed directly on the Council agenda after being examined by the city manager’s office for fiscal impact and the manager’s recommendation. 

The Agenda Committee, originally known as the Rules Committee, manages the agenda for Berkeley City Council. Created by Mayor Bates as part of his program to modify Council rules and policies after his election last November, the committee triggered some initial controversy on City Council. 

Membership consists of the mayor and two councilmembers he appointed, Linda Maio and Miriam Hawley. 

Reports from Berkeley’s 23 citizen commissions can be controversial themselves. Earlier this year, after Council deeply split over a resolution from the Peace and Justice Commission to investigate the Middle East death of American peace worker Rachel Corrie, both Bates and Hawley expressed concern about such “non-Berkeley” issues coming before the Council. 

But Bates aide Cisco De Vries says that while a commission report proposal was discussed during the Nov. 10 Agenda Committee meeting, they didn’t intend to censor the commissions. 

“There has been some discussion about having commission stuff come through the Agenda Committee,” De Vries said, “but in a pretty limited way.” Noting that the discussions occurred during a six-month review of the Agenda Committee, De Vries said one proposal would give the Agenda Committee the ability to move an individual commission report from the Consent Calendar—which is passed with no individual discussion—to the Action Calendar, where questions or debate occur. 

De Vries added that the Agenda Committee may want to look at either speeding up placement of commission reports on the Council agenda, or delaying it “by no more than one week” for the purpose of coordination with other action being taken by Council. 

Council and Agenda Committee member Linda Maio agreed. 

“What was discussed last week was the possibility of the Agenda Committee being able to hold a report over for a week if it looks as if there’s a commission report that was incomplete and questions needed to be answered,” Maio said. She called that “really, a rare occurrence. I don’t think anyone [on the Agenda Committee] has any plans—I certainly don’t—to hold any reports back from the Council. The Agenda Committee hasn’t held anything back. What it’s done is given us a little bit of time to get questions answered about agenda items beforehand, so we don’t have to ask them during the night of the Council meeting. I don’t see [the Agenda Committee]—and I don’t know of anyone else who sees it—as being obstructionist.” 

Maio said she didn’t see any reason why the Agenda Committee would hold over a commission report for more than a week. 

“But I’m just one out of three people [on the committee],” she added. “I don’t know what is going to be discussed [at the next committee meeting].” 

At least one commission member was not mollified. Told about the Agenda Committee proposal regarding commission reports, Planning Commission Chairperson Zelda Bronstein said that “before any such proposal is taken to City Council for discussion, any changes in procedures in how commission reports come before Council ought to be first presented to the commissions themselves. To my knowledge, the commissions have not yet been given the opportunity to discuss this proposal.” 

Bronstein declined further comment. 

The commission report proposal and other suggested changes to Agenda Committee procedures are scheduled to be discussed by the Agenda Committee again Dec. 1. 

The Agenda Committee meets at 2:30 p.m. on the sixth floor of City Hall. An information report for the Agenda Committee proposed changes is scheduled to be presented to City Council at Council’s Dec. 9 meeting. Council itself must make the final decision on any proposed changes.