Councilmember Charleen Raines pulled an item out of the consent calendar for discussion at last night’s City Council meeting. This action should be commended — too many items go through with nary a hint of thought it seems, and sometimes to detrimental effect (see Szabo plan funding) — but what was more alarming than an actual item being pulled was that Councilmember Raines had seemingly no idea what the item was…

The agenda for City Council meetings become available for public viewing a few days before the meeting. I typically receive an email on Friday afternoon from the City Clerk with a draft agenda attached, and the following Monday, the agenda and its attachments are posted to the City website. The attachments — texts of resolutions, staff reports, background information — only become available for viewing the day before City Council meetings. I have found this quite frustrating myself, however, so has Councilmember Raines, who — maybe along with others on the Council — apparently only skims the agenda and consent calendar items before voting on them.

I should note that although I am being admittedly super-critical of Councilmember Raines, I do think that consent calendar items should be pulled more often, even if it is to clarify what the item is. I would rather have our councilmembers make an educated vote than a blind one. And I know what you are thinking, but I am not only posting this because Raines is up for re-election this November.