What is assembling the Agenda?

The agenda is the council’s plan of work for a particular meeting. Therefore, it makes some sense that the members of the council should know well in advance what work they are expected to perform at any particular meeting. Putting the agenda together, publishing and distributing it along with the supporting documents in a timely fashion is an important responsibility of the presiding officer, usually the mayor, which is most often accomplished with the help of the city or town clerk.

Typically, the mayor and clerk assemble the work items on the agenda from four sources of input:

1. The chief executive who may have knowledge about issues of concern to the governing body;

2. Items brought to the executive by department heads and staff;

3. Items or committee reports submitted by council members for inclusion on the meeting agenda;

4. Items or issues raised directly by citizens with an individual council member.

While there are no procedural rules establishing priorities for items to be scheduled on the agenda, a smart presiding officer will go to considerable lengths to assure that all participants in the process feel confident that their particular items of concern will be scheduled in a timely fashion. By the same token, it makes little sense, except perhaps to deliberately embarrass one’s own government, for a council member to force an item on to the agenda prematurely,

Montana Municipal Officials Handbook 44 especially an item that requires considerable staff time to investigate. In short, building the commission agenda requires cooperation and trust. Absent these crucial elements, the council meeting will be frustrating, fractious and long.