Featured Inquiry (07/21/08)

To search or browse past MRSC inquiries, please visit the MRSC Inquiries page, which contains a listing of the most recent Featured Inquiries and older inquiries categorized by subject.

Question:

What is the role of the mayor in a mayor/council code city in facilitating and leading council committee work for the city?

Answer:

The short answer to your question is that the mayor's role with respect to city council committees is a matter for the council to determine.

While there is no statute that specifically addresses the establishment and operation of internal city council committees, we believe the authority for this can be found in RCW 35A.12.120, which provides, in part: “The council shall determine its own rules and order of business and may establish rules for the conduct of council meetings and the maintenance of order.” Under this authority, the city council may enact rules and regulations to govern the conduct and operations of the city council. This authority includes the ability to determine if and when standing committees will be utilized, what the committees will be, how they will conduct their business, and how their members will be appointed. Many city councils have adopted rules of procedure to address these issues.

While the mayor in a mayor-council code city has the power to appoint and remove all appointive officers and employees (RCW 35A.12.090), this power does not extend to appointments or assignments to internal city council committees which remain within the province of the city council. Even so, many council rules give this responsibility to the mayor. In other cities, this function is handled by the council itself or in combination with the mayor. It is up to each local council to determine how such assignments will be made, and they are free to do so with our without the mayor's involvement.

The duties and responsibilities of individual council committees are generally established by council ordinance. Such ordinances typically list the names of the committees and define their individual areas of responsibility. The operations and rules of procedure for council committees are also matters that fall within the province of the city council, including the issue of who will preside at council committee meetings. While some cities are comfortable with having the mayor perform this function, others appoint individual committee chairs from among the members of the city council. As a practical matter there is a limit to the number of committees that any one individual can chair regardless of whether they may be a mayor or city councilmember. While we have not surveyed Washington cities on this specific point, our guess is that most council committees are chaired by councilmembers if only to spread the workload more efficiently. Finally, the assignment of specific committee tasks is also a matter for the council to decide, although the mayor may certainly suggest such assignments. Again, these are all issues that can be spelled out in the city council’s rules of procedure.

The mayor’s role with respect to policy-making in general and council committee work in particular may best be described as a partnership. Although the mayor presides at the city council’s regular meetings and has a general policy leadership role, this does not mean that he or she also has the authority to direct the functioning of the city council and/or any of its committees. The internal functioning of city council committees remains within the province of the city council.

With respect to how such issues are to be dealt with in your city, you should first consult any rules of procedure that may have been adopted by the city council. If the council has not yet adopted such rules you may want to consider doing so. MRSC’s Web page on “Council/board of Commissioners Rules of Procedure” may be of some assistance for this purpose.