05/28/2026
Good recap of BOMA meeting.
There seems to be confusion about why voting meetings (7PM meeting) are sometimes long and sometimes short and why some items at the voting meeting have no discussion at all and some have more discussion.
First, we have an extensive Committee Structure at the City. ALL Committee meetings and Commission meetings are public, most are televised or on Facebook and all have detailed minutes. Most agenda items that fit within a Committee’s purview will start at the designated Committee for extensive discussion. For instance, Budget and Finance spends about 4 months of meetings (~2/month so 8 total) reviewing every single department. Every increase in budget expenditure requested by each Dept must complete a Budget Enhancement Request with supporting documentation and explanation. All of that can be seen on meetings and/or viewed on City website under that meetings packet of information.
At those Committee meetings, that subset of Aldermen will discuss and vote on a recommendation to the larger BOMA for vote. Either yes or no.
Then the item will go to a full BOMA work session (5PM meeting usually) and, depending on the complexity of the topic, there will be another Staff presentation and the entire Board can discuss the matter during Work Session. This is typically a month before this hits the voting meeting agenda. By doing this, Staff can take BOMA feedback and adapt or obtain any additional information an Aldermen requests to make the decision.
Then, it can be brought back to another Work session if more discussion is required or it can be put on a voting meeting agenda. By the time it hits Voting Meeting Agenda, there have been exhaustive discussions on the matter and typically there isn’t much left to be answered and the matter is voted on. If there is an issue where there are split opinions you might see Aldermen bring back up issues or make a case for their point of view but, again, by this time there has been many opportunities for this.
SOME agenda items require 3 separate voting meetings with 3 separate votes. The 2nd voting meeting in this sequence is typically where there is what’s called a formal “Public Hearing” that is specifically advertised (but all meetings have public comment). At this meeting you have typically the most public representation. So this is where, for instance on the budget, Staff will do a larger presentation during the Voting Meeting and Aldermen will dig in once they’ve heard from the more formal “Public Hearing”. Even after the two votes there is still a 3rd and final vote for budget so we can have more feedback and make adjustments before final adoption.
Oh, and some agenda items require multiple Planning Commission meetings/votes/Public Hearings BEFOR it goes to a Work Session or Voting Meeting.
Again, at EVERY meeting mentioned there is public comment allowed. We want it. It helps us tremendously. Especially early on in this process.
This week we had a short voting meeting. Less than 20min. But- everything on there, at this stage, required no more discussion than had already taken place. Some were first votes, like the Budget. We know the second voting meeting is where much of this final discussion will take place with members of the public present and Staff presenting the full detail.
Unfortunately, some people just tune into the voting meeting and see the end result of this exhaustive process and then decide to go to war on the keyboard saying things like “something is off”, “they’re discussing in private backrooms”, “they know the votes before the meetings even happen” and they decide that instead of educating themselves about the process they will add to the rage on social media. Not productive.
What I can tell you is that if you look at every voting meeting agenda item and then look at the path it took to get there and all the public discussion that takes place, you’ll understand why some things don’t require additional discussion at voting meeting. They’ve been discussed to death!
This process makes government more effective, hard to believe with how many meetings/discussion/citizen comment that takes place, by not forcing lengthy discussions during voting meetings and causing continuous deferred votes when more information is needed or BOMA wants to approach differently etc. That takes place in Committee meetings and at Work sessions. It also gives the public MORE opportunities to learn and engage and speak about a subject matter of concern to them.
So next time you hear someone say “BOMA meetings are so short and they never discuss items they’re voting on”, you’ll know that individual hasn’t really taken the time to understand the process but has taken the easy way out and simply complained online. We need less of that and more people speaking during public comment at all these meetings!
Sorry for the long post but people need to be educated about just how much work goes into what happens at the City and where you should engage on issues important to you!
