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between Governor Wilson and the Republican Party and the Democratic Party on the other side of the aisle.... I accepted Councilman Ira's suggestion that that is why no recommendation came forward from the Legislative Committee. That's fine. I have no problem with that. "What caught my attention, however, is that Councilman Leipzig, and I am sorry that I have to say this, expressed his displeasure that this item was scheduled on the Council agenda at all, after the Legislative Committee chose not to consider it. That is an absolute violation of this Council's protocol. No Chairperson of any Committee has the authority to censor information that comes to us, especially legislative information. Councilman Leipzig also went on to say that he was interested in how that got on our agenda, and he was going to have to talk with the City Attorney, who was not there that night, about why it got there. That is unacceptable. I just do not feel that any Chairperson of any Committee, again, has the right to censor what we see. We make non-partisan decisions up here. We look at all legislative actions at the State Capitol and we make decisions, or should be making decisions on a non-partisan basis. "I don't have any faith in Council Member Leipzig's ability to divorce himself from partisan politics, but I will live with that. He can in fact, review an item in the Legislative Committee and voice his particular opinion on it. I welcome that dialogue. I would never deny him that right. What I object to is that he took it upon himself to prevent this item to reach our agenda by not bringing it forward. That is a major violation of Council protocol. I would suggest that... the City Council appoint an Ad Hoc Committee which does not include anyone that is currently serving on the Legislative Committee to review exactly what the Legislative Committee should be doing, and get it down in black and white, and make it a Council policy. We have a lot of things that we do here on the Council that are not in black and white; it is just assumed that these activities would take place. We have in the past stated policy. One in particular I brought forward was a policy on how we could use Letterhead and what we could use it for. I would suggest that the Council at a future meeting establish that committee so that we could review the procedures of the Legislative Committee, what they should be reviewing and what they should not be reviewing, and make it very clear that no Chairperson of any Committee has the authority to censor material that is brought before us." MEMO 6/23/98 Council Member Ira said, "Since you didn't give me my handbook on what to do on the Legislative Committee, I don't know that it is going to be that hard to do. It is actually early tonight. We could actually (establish) this now. I don't know what you really want. Of course the biggest problem is that there is so much in (the League Bulletin.) We have exceeded our fifteen minutes tonight, but how much time do we really want to devote to that, how much of a recap. We get a recap from the League every week in our packet. Which ones really affect the City? I was telling Ed today, there is a bill... AB 644 that I have personally written probably at least six, seven, eight letters to different legislators and REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 56 JUNE 22, 1998 MINUTES Page No. 588 PAGE 26