Use of consent agenda approved by township
By Dana Casadei
Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees meetings may look a little different as the year continues after the approval for utilization of a consent agenda at the Monday, January 13, board meeting.
With a consent agenda the board of trustees will now be able to vote in one motion without discussion for matters that are considered routine and non-controversial. In other words, items will be grouped together, voted on together, and zero discussion will be had on any of the items in that bundle. All will be adopted in a single motion, aa practice followed by most other government bodies in other communities.
“This could save the board time to work on and pay more attention to other items on the agenda,” said clerk Martin Brook.
Multiple members on the board have been a part of boards or committee who have used this type of agenda before, including Brook, who said his team looked at about half a dozen options before landing on this one.
A consent agenda is also recognized by Robert’s Rules of Order – a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert – as an accepted practice.
Often used by local school districts, cities, townships – including the Oakland County Board of Commissioners – a consent agenda will ideally allow the township board of trustees to have more time to attend to unique or significant matters, and reduce unnecessary burdens on Bloomfield Township staff.
Moving forward, the Board of Trustees meeting schedule will look similar to how they run now. They will still start with a call of order, the Pledge of Allegiance, and public comment; then will be followed by the consent agenda. From there, new and/or unfinished business will be discussed before adjournment.
To have an item be considered for the consent agenda, Bloomfield Township officials will be asked to submit items with an explicit request for board action, including any conditions or limitations to the item being presented. This way it will be clear to the board of trustees what exactly they would be approving and voting on.
Brook presented the policy to the board and while the board approved it, not all in the room were happy about the decision, including a woman who spoke up about this policy during the meeting’s public comment.
“A consent agenda is an attempt by Martin Brook to bundle issues without public commentary. I, and many other taxpayers, do not trust the members of the administration to act in a fair and transparent way, especially on financial issues and contracts,” she said. “If you want to shorten meetings, then do so by providing the transparency that the public expects.”
This issue of transparency was brought up again from trustee Valerie Murray, who wondered how transparent a consent agenda would be. Brook noted that the amount of information in the packet for board of trustees meetings would still be the same as it currently is, things would be no less transparent than they are now.
Bloomfield Township employees would still be asked to provide information for the packet, but if their item is put in the consent agenda, they wouldn’t have to come to the board of trustees meeting to speak, giving them back some of their time.
With a policy such as this, the Bloomfield Township Supervisor, Clerk, and Treasurer ultimately decide which contents will be considered for the consent agenda, done through the policy’s provided guidelines for making those decisions.
Items that will qualify to be put on the consent agenda are routine and non-controversial, as well as purchase requests and/or contract awards that comply with the township purchasing policy. It will be awarded to a qualified contractor/vendor who made the lowest bid or proposal, and has an amount proposed to spend that is within the approved budget.
While residents wouldn’t be able to have an item removed from the consent agenda, if they make a strong enough case during public comment that it should, they could get a board member to agree. If so, a board member would ask it to become a separate agenda item and taken out of the consent agenda.
“An opportunity for a full discussion is always an option,” Brook said.
