Title
Continued Discussion: Introduction to decorum
Body
Issue/Request
At the request of the Chair, staff has provided information, attached, related to decorum. For the purposes of definition, decorum refers generally to the established standards of conduct, politeness, and order required from both public officials and members of the community during public meetings. It serves as the framework that ensures meetings remain civil, productive, and focused on public business, preventing discussions from devolving into personal attacks, disruptive outbursts, or chaotic arguments. Cities in our region and around the country have varying rules related to decorum. We have attached decorum rules from a cities in Missouri for your review. The rules from Festus and Hazelwood would be considered fairly middle of the road while the rules from Sedalia are significantly more strict.
Update 8-20-26:
At the most recent meeting of the Committee, staff was directed to provide a draft document related to decorum rule. That document has been prepared and is attached.
Update 9-17-26
Following the August meeting, staff and Chair Carlyle worked to make the edits requested by the Committee. The document has been edited consistent with your comments and requests. Please note that this document is far from final. You will find font inconsistencies, spacing issues and other similar issues that have not been fully edited out. We will, of course, provide a fully edited document prior to any final action on the document. Thank you.
Update 10-15-26
During the September meeting of the Committee a number of additional edits were made to the proposed document. Those have been incorporated into rules. The Committee will continue its discussion of the document for the October meeting. The document remains rough and has not been given final formatting etc. Thank you.
Presenter
Chair Trish Carlyle