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Clerk of the Council Office <br />www.santa-ana.org/cc <br />Item # 25 <br />City of Santa Ana <br />20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />Staff Report <br />November 2, 2021 <br />TOPIC: Streamlining City Council Meetings <br />AGENDA TITLE: <br />Options to Streamline City Council Meetings <br />RECOMMENDED ACTION <br />Accept informational report and provide direction to staff. <br />DISCUSSION <br />At the October 5, 2021 City Council meeting, the City Council directed staff to prepare a <br />report on best practices for streamlining City Council meetings. Staff conducted research <br />on existing policies relating to the rules and procedures for City Council meetings, <br />meeting duration for City Council meetings during the 2021 calendar year, and best <br />practices on streamlining City Council meetings. <br />Review of Duration of City Council Meetings <br />Staff analyzed City Council meetings dating back to January 2021. Over the course of 18 <br />meetings, the average meeting duration hovered just above seven hours. Two of these <br />meetings lasted over twelve hours each. Closed sessions were determined to take <br />approximately two hours on average, and at times were resumed at the end of the City <br />Council meetings if the initial session ran past 6:00 p.m. The proclamations and <br />presentations period takes over an hour on average. Pulled Consent Calendar items <br />averaged ten minutes per item, with an average of pulled items hovering at five per <br />meeting. Business calendar and public hearing items averaged thirty minutes per item. <br />Lastly, contentious items account for over five hours of public comment period alone, on <br />average. <br />Streamlining City Council Meetings at a Comparable City: Long Beach, CA <br />In March 2019, the City of Long Beach conducted a study, referred to as the Council <br />Meeting Streamlining Outreach Survey, to obtain feedback from constituents regarding <br />the then -current structure of their City Council meetings. This study was conducted in <br />response to an inquiry from a councilmember relating to the duration of their City Council <br />meetings. A community survey, composed of six questions asking for feedback from <br />constituents about their thoughts on streamlining City Council meetings, along with <br />demographics -related questions, received 210 responses. Common suggestions to their <br />