The Portland City Council this week spent five hours discussing the frequency of full council meetings and the structure and content of its policy subcommittees, but was unable to find consensus on a restructure.
The only thing the 12-person council did approve out of the two work sessions was increasing the frequency of full-council meetings.
The council in January approved an ordinance that created eight policy committees, each led by a chair and co-chair or led by two co-chairs. But it became immediately apparent that the frequency and duration of the meetings were untenable for councilors and for city staff, who worked overtime to staff all the weekly meetings. And councilors said they didn’t ahve enough hours in the day to go back and rewatch committee meetings that they don’t sit on…