Out of the 11 items on the agenda for the Oct.4 Warwick City Council meeting over half of them weren’t “drafted” meaning that the Council couldn’t have any debate or take a vote on those particular items. 

When not drafted items appear on the agenda the Council still needs to take a vote to move them to a different meeting, which many members of the Council have viewed as time not well spent. 

“It takes up time that doesn’t need to be spent,” said Councilman Anthony Sinapi. 

To help eliminate that practice Sinapi introduced a resolution to change the Council rules. 

Under the change, which the Council voted 8-0 for its first passage it will only allow items to appear on the agenda that have been drafted. 

In addition to the extra time that it took for the Council to go through the items Sinapi said that it's also a disadvantage for the public because community members would often attend meetings for those particular agenda items, wait for in some instances hours, only to find out the items wouldn’t be discussed or voted on. 

“This will make the agendas much clearer for members of the public,” said Council President Steve McAllister. 

This wasn’t the only rule change under the resolution. 

One rule that McAllister has found as problematic since first taking over the gavel requires that the Clerk must provide copies of the docket and its supporting documents to the Council members 10 days before the meeting. This leaves little time between when a meeting ends and when resolutions need to be drafted before the following meeting. 

For example he said that the Oct. 18 meeting had a deadline of noon on Oct. 5 , which was about 12 hours after the Oct. 4 meeting ended. 

McAllister said that every meeting they have had at least one council member who has requested an extension to this rule in order to get their docket item in. 

“It seems to be causing a lot of issues every meeting,” McAllister said. 

While the Council agreed they needed to change the amount of days from 10 to a different length of time there was debate about what the time frame should be. 

Originally Sinapi proposed requiring the Clerk to have the materials five days including the weekend before the meeting. 

Councilman Ed Ladouceur said that he didn’t think that giving Council members three business days was enough time for them to review all of the materials and do any research needed to make an informed decision. 

“Members of the City Council will now only have three business days to review the entire book of business for the upcoming meeting,” he said about the proposed ordinance. 

Ladouceur said he “strongly opposed” having only five days to review the agenda items and documents. 

He also questioned if they currently post the agenda to the Secretary of State’s website 10 days in advance and if their new rule would conflict with the Open Meeting Act. 

City Clerk Lynn D’Abrosca said that they currently post the agendas 48 hours in advance, which is within the guidelines. 

Councilman Jeremy Rix suggested they go with seven days, which would allow a full week for review, including five business days. The rest of the Council agreed that seven days would be sufficient. 

The Council is expected to take a final vote on the rule changes during its Oct. 18 meeting.