At our meeting of December 16, 2025, the Common Council took the very regrettable action of approving by a 4 to 3 vote Resolution # 091-2025.  Titled “A Resolution Establishing Procedures for an Alderperson to Request Items Be Placed on Common Council Agendas” and while claiming to recognize “the importance of maintaining an orderly, efficient, and transparent process for inclusion of matters on Common Council agendas,” this resolution effectively sets the mayor up as a gatekeeper for agenda items, thereby removing the ability of individual council members to present future agenda items in an open meeting setting.

Unfortunately, this resolution was drafted by our own city attorney.  Ironically, however, in the January/February issue of “The Municipality,” which is published by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, the city attorney for West Allis (Kail Decker—incidentally, no relation) published an article titled, “How Municipal Attorneys Can Maximize the Value of Legal Advice.”  In his article, Mr. Decker lays out 4 guidelines he recommends that city attorneys follow in working with their mayors and common councils.

At one point, Mr. Decker writes:

“For example, Robert’s Rules creates a few ways in which those who disagree with the majority can still have a voice.  Make sure you know the parliamentarian rules that protect that minority voice, even if only a single member of the body has that opinion.  For example, any one official can call ‘division (of the house)’ to force a voice vote that was close to a roll call vote.  Any official can remove an item from a consent agenda or divide a question and call for an individual vote.  Any official should be able to place an item on an agenda.  Local rules that require the chair or another individual to approve an agenda or allow the chair to remove an item from an agenda are improper because they make one person the gatekeeper.  One elected official should be able to start something, but no single elected official should be able to shut something down.  This is local government, not Congress; it’s supposed to actually function.  There are ways to sidestep topics the other members do not want to discuss, other than putting up a gatekeeper (see, e.g., objection to consideration of a question).  These individual powers of elected officials are important because in many other instances they may only speak as a majority vote.  Showing them when they have individual authority helps you when you clarify the instances in which they do not have individual authority.”