Dewey adopts Dewey Rules to improve efficiency

Dewey rules! Dewey rules! Dewey rules!

Arms in the air, fists pumping; tan bodies in tank tops and bikini; flip cup or beer pong – it’s easy to picture a crowd chanting this phrase at a house party in Dewey Beach.

Now, following Dewey Beach Town Council’s unanimous decision to adopt best practices for town meetings, with an addendum called The Dewey Rules, it’s a phrase that conjures up middle-aged property and business owners – still tan  – hashing out the town’s issues.

Using Roberts Rules of Order as a guide, Commissioner Mike Dunmyer crafted the resolution, adopted during council’s Dec. 12 meeting. He said the rules will improve council's efficiency.

Town council began discussing meeting length and appropriate behavior shortly after the September elections.

During a workshop in November, town council considered using Robert’s Rules of Order but decided against it after Commissioner Gary Mauler raised concerns about the possibility of a member of the public overtaking a meeting with arcane parliamentary procedure. He said other committees he serves on have avoided Robert’s Rules because of this concern.

Fred Townsend, town attorney, said during the workshop another option was Mason’s Rules of Legislative Procedure, which Kent County Levy Court uses to govern their meetings.

In the end, Dunmyer said he would take the most salient parts of Robert’s Rules and develop rules for the council meeting in December.

The resolution has four parts, with the first addressing meeting length. It says that no meeting will last longer than two-and-a-half hours, unless, on the rare occasion, an emergency item required closure or an in-progress item could be closed with a few more minutes of discussion.

Dunmyer said key to the success for this rule was not setting up an agenda for failure by loading it with time-consuming issues and by following the second part of the resolution, which says commissioners need to come to meetings prepared.

As part of adopting the rules, commissioners pledge to come prepared, said Dunmyer.

Sections 3 and 4 of the resolution ask members of the public to follow the rules and state the Dewey Rules addendum will govern speaking limits.

The Dewey Rules says the mayor runs the meetings, and commissioners must be recognized before speaking, keep on topic and be as concise as possible.

The rules give commissioners two five-minute opportunities to speak on an item; petitioners for a conditional use application have 10 minutes for a formal presentation; and the general public has three minutes to speak.

Commissioner Courtney Riordan commended Dunmyer on the document, calling it wonderful. Now, he said, it’s up to the council to commit themselves to do it.

Sticking his head out from behind Mayor Diane Hanson to address Mauler during the discussion, Commissioner Dale Cooke suggested rearranging the seating from the current straight across alignment to a more U-shaped configuration.

Following the vote, commissioners agreed to put the new rules into practice beginning at the January meeting.