Council Business & Legislation

The Yakima City Council holds regular business meetings on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 5:30pm in the Council Chambers of the City Hall, located at 129 N. 2nd Street, Yakima, WA. The public is welcome to attend and participate at these meetings. Any regular meeting may be adjourned to a different date and time to meet special purposes, to work around holidays, for study sessions, or to conduct unexpected urgent business. If a meeting does not adjourn to the next regularly scheduled time, the next meeting time will be indicated at the end of the agenda and announced just prior to adjournment.

Council Agenda and Packets

A Council Agenda Packet is created to provide detailed information about the issues before Council. The Clerk’s office produces Council packets with contributions from many divisions of the City. To satisfy the intent of the requirements of RCW 35.22.288, the meeting Agenda is posted on the bulletin board in the City Hall lobby and posted on the City’s webpage. Packets are usually available online by Friday afternoon of the week prior to the meeting.

Meeting packets begin with an agenda indicating item-by-item what will be covered at the meeting, and the order in which each item will be addressed. Supportive documentation for each item follows the agenda, in numerical order, with all the information for each individual item grouped together. Each grouping begins with an agenda statement page, which summarizes the item, and is followed by associated reports or proposed contracts, ordinances, or resolutions as needed, to clarify and provide specific details.

Action Minutes

Generally, after each Council business meeting, a brief report is prepared called Action Minutes. This report lists the agenda items and the actions taken by Council for each item. Items may be approved or denied according to the vote of Council. The Action Minutes are posted soon after each meeting and available until the official meeting minutes are approved.

Approved Meeting Minutes

Minutes are prepared to record what happened at each Council meeting. The Minutes give a fuller accounting of the meeting than the Action Minutes. After preparation, they are submitted to Council for approval. After approval, an archival copy is prepared, signed by the Mayor, and then posted for public viewing. This process takes a few weeks. Please contact the City Clerk’s Office at (509) 575-6037 if you need information about Minutes that have not yet been posted.

Ordinances and the Yakima Municipal Code

Ordinances establish the laws of the City. The proposed Ordinances are presented to Council in the Council Packets. If approved by Council, they become enforceable by law and are signed by the Mayor. Each Ordinance is referenced by a number and a brief title in the Approved Meeting Minutes. Following the passage of an ordinance, the ordinance title an appropriate certification is published once in the official newspaper of the city. An inadvertent mistake or omission in publishing the text or a summary of the content of an ordinance shall not render the ordinance invalid (RCW 35.22.288).

The Yakima Municipal Code is the codex, or organized collection of the official laws of the City. When new ordinances are passed by Council, this changes the laws of the City by adding, altering, eliminating, or replacing the existing laws, thus changing the existing Code. There is a lag time from when an Ordinance is passed and when it is codified (incorporated into the Municipal Code). If you are wishing to stay current on the laws of the City, be sure to see Recent Ordinances in addition to the Yakima Municipal Code. The current version of the Municipal Code is kept in an electronic format which can be searched, viewed online, or printed.

Resolutions

Unlike ordinances, resolutions do not create laws and are not incorporated into the Municipal Code. Resolutions are used for various purposes such as to formally recognize agreements and to set forth policy of the City. For example, by resolution, Council may approve a contract for park improvements, declare policy for cold weather shelters, or set public hearing dates. Proposed resolutions are presented to Council in the Agenda Packets, along with explanatory information. If approved by Council, they are signed by the Mayor and become part of the City’s permanent records. Each Resolution is referenced by a number and a brief title in the Approved Meeting Minutes.

Public Hearing Notices

Public hearings are generally set by City Council to a date certain. The City notifies the public of upcoming hearings by publishing a legal notice in the Yakima Herald-Republic legal section usually ten days prior to the hearing date; however, there are different requirements for certain public hearing topics. The public hearing notice is also posted on the city City’s webpage and shared with local media outlets.