New Rolling Meadows mayor outlines meeting rules

Tom Rooney provided aldermen a refresher on procedures and outlined some legislative rules he plans to use to streamline council proceedings at his first committee of the whole meeting as mayor of Rolling Meadows Tuesday.

Rooney suggested better usage of the consent agenda, emphasizing that detailed conversations on ordinances and resolutions should be done in committee meetings and that council meetings are for making decisions resulting from what was discussed in committee.

Rooney plans to be more detailed in the descriptions of resolutions and ordinances so that anyone who didn't watch the committee meetings will still be informed.

“Were not little junior senators here; we are doing this part time, not full time,” he said. “I'm not saying (questions) can't happen during council, but those questions are supposed to be done before we get here.

“You can ask a question to make a point or a question you want the public to hear the answer to. If we try to minimize it a bit it will make things go a little smoother for us and for those who watch us.”

Alderman John D'Astice expressed concern that people may see the votes without discussion as the council trying to ram things through.

“I'm willing to try anything ... but some people say something comes up, you all vote and no one knows what the hell happened.” D'Astice said.

He added that he also sees the other side of the argument. If there are questions or too much discussion, residents they think the meetings are boring, D'Astice said.

But, Rooney said, “if we spent more time getting questions answered beforehand it would give people more confidence in what they see happening.”

Alderman agreed to be open to Rooney's procedures, and Rooney promised to be lenient until everyone understands the protocol completely.