Governing Body Procedural Rules Staff Recommendations (Memo)

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Date: October 1, 2026
To: Governing Body
From: Marci Eannarino, Manager of Legislation and Policy
Via: Marcos Martínez, City Attorney
RE: Staff recommendations for updates to procedural rules
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The attached draft of the Governing Body Procedural Rules includes tracked changes and comment boxes
detailing possible amendments. These recommendations represent a combination of ideas from the City
Attorney, from legislative staff, and from conversations with Governing Body members and other City staff as
well. Specifically, these ideas include the following ten suggestions:
1) A technical change to align the definition of “Governing Body” with the City of Santa Fe’s (“City”)
Charter as well as Chapter 2 of the City’s code;
2) The inclusion of a definition for a “primary sponsor”
a. A Governing Body member who would act as the primary liaison with the legislative staff to
make decisions regarding policy goals, to resolve any discrepancies among co-sponsors with
respect to language, to work with legislative staff to finalize the legislative review schedule,
and any other similar actions to help facilitate the forward progress to legislative
introduction;
3) An encouraged “Administrative Coordination Phase” to occur prior to introduction and dedicated to
appropriate coordination of relevant City actors;
a. For “Governing Body initiated requests”, coordination with the City Manager’s Office and
other City departments;
b. For “staff-initiated” requests, coordination with the City Manager’s Office and Governing
Body members;
4) The idea of two “Legislative Sessions”, one which would begin January 15th and end June 15th, and
the second from July 15 to December 15;
5) Expedited legislative process for ministerial legislation such as grant resolutions and ordinances;
a. For resolutions, a single introduction and adoption date;
b. For bills/ordinances, schedule would include minimum statutory requirements only;
c. These could include the option to refer for further committee review, should the Governing
Body decide that necessary.ME
MEMM
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6) A requirement that the Finance Committee review Fiscal Impact Reports (“FIR”) for any legislation
that includes a fiscal impact;
a. Currently the rules indicate that the Finance Committee reviews any legislation that has a
fiscal impact, but the FIRs are not explicitly mentioned;
7) Reduce the number of Standing Committees to two—create a single Legislative Committee and
retain Finance Committee;
8) The addition of a definition for a “secondary” amendment and the requirement that Governing Body
members identify the amendment as such;
a. Secondary amendments are a tool for providing clarity when Governing Body members wish
to keep large pieces of a colleague’s amendment language, but wish to add clarifying details
or nuance to the original text;
b. Secondary amendments work to clarify the goal of an amendment for legislative staff;
9) A process for resolving conflicting amendments;
10) Moving Public Comment/Petitions from the floor earlier in the Governing Body agenda;
BACKGROUND:
The Governing Body’s procedural rules were last updated with the adoption of Resolution No. 2022-4.
ATTACHMENTS:
Governing Body Procedural Rules Edits