How the council works, over time
Twenty measures of what the council decides and how it gets there. Click any point for the meetings, minutes and video behind it.
Key moments
Split votes, failed motions, Planning Commission overrides, long-running matters and big public turnouts, counted by year. Click a number to see exactly what happened.
Output
Decisions per meeting
Substantive decisions (not adjournment, minutes or the consent agenda) per meeting with minutes.
Decisions per month with a meeting
Normalizes for months where the council met only once.
Decisions per hour of meeting
Substantive decisions divided by hours of speech in regular meetings (video years only).
Ordinances and resolutions adopted
Motions to adopt an ordinance or resolution.
Votes
Share of decisions with a split vote
At least one member voted no.
Items continued or tabled
Motions to continue or table that passed.
Failed motions
Motions that did not pass.
Agendas
Action items per agenda
Ordinances, resolutions, public hearings, approvals and appointments listed on the agenda.
Presentations and discussion items per agenda
Presentations, updates, reports and discussions listed on the agenda.
Meetings
Hours of speech per regular meeting
Total speaking time in the recording(s) of each regular meeting, work session included.
Work session length vs. plan
Actual work-session speaking time divided by the minutes planned on the agenda (1.0 = on plan).
Public
Residents who spoke, per meeting
Unidentified voices that introduced themselves ('my name is', 'I live at').
Member absences
Officials recorded as excused or absent in the minutes.
Deliberation
Work-session discussions ending in consensus or direction
Share of work-session discussion items whose minutes record consensus or direction to staff.
Council followed the Planning Commission
Items where the minutes state the Planning Commission's recommendation and the council decided.
Meetings until a decision
Average number of meetings a matter appears on before it is approved or denied.
Floor time
Members heard per discussion
Average number of council members who spoke 30 seconds or more in discussions with 5+ minutes of council talk.
Discussions where one member did most of the talking
Share of discussions where a single member held more than half of all council member speaking time.
Largest single member's share of council speaking time
Mayor excluded. 2019 is low-reliability (one member has no voice reference).
Chair's share of elected officials' speaking time
The mayor runs the meeting; how much of the elected officials' talking the chair does.