By Brandi Makuski

The Stevens Point City Council President has requested a new committee be formed to further accommodate aldermanic discussion.

The Common Council Executive Committee (CCEC), proposed by Ald. Meleesa Johnson, is on the agenda for consideration at Monday night’s standing committees.

In a memo to City Clerk John Moe, Johnson suggested the new committee as “another conduit, which
functions under open meeting and public records laws, to parse, evaluate and advance the
important issues and even the mundane, but none-the-less important topics that affect our city.”

If approved, the new committee would be governed by city ordinance. Under the proposed language the committee would consist of the Council President — currently Johnson herself — and four other members of the City Council. Those members would be elected by a majority vote of the City Council, according to the proposal.

“The genesis of this concept came from a number of counties, villages and cities that have such committees, using the executive committees of their board’s or council’s mechanism for ‘teeing up’ items for future agenda,” Johnson wrote in her memo.

Johnson, who works for Marathon Co. as director of its solid waste dept., also is an elected member of the Portage Co. Board of Supervisors. She was elected to the Stevens Point City Council in February 2016.

She added the new committee would serve “as a rules committee, deliberating and setting a session’s legislative agenda (and sets benchmarks) and serving as the body’s outreach/communications arm.”

Under the proposal the new committee would not have final decision-making authority, Johnson wrote.

“All items, whether advanced to committee or advanced to council would require approval by council.”

The proposal comes before the Public Protection Committee, which meets at 7:35 PM at Lincoln Center, 1519 Water St. on Nov. 13.