Creating Legislative Files (Ordinances and Resolutions)
Legislative files include resolutions and ordinances which go to the Common Council for consideration. The standard process for legislative files is to be introduced at one Council meeting and return for consideration and vote at a later meeting after consideration by one or more committees, which also provide recommendations to Council.
To get started, a file needs a title and body, file type, controlling body and acting body, referrals and at least one sponsor; much of this information is often provided by other staff. A completed file must receive a fiscal note via an approval process within Legistar, ideally prior to the first draft of the Council agenda.
Use the linked topics below to assist you when creating a new legislative file. Some users also find it helpful to have a second Legistar window open which shows a similar file, to refer to when creating the new file.
- Controlling body: Set this to Common Council when introducing a new file. Set this to the lead referral for files returning to Council for final action.
- Titles: Standard conventions: Start with an action, end with district number(s) when applicable.
- Referrals and Referral Dates: Add referrals to the first line of the history in the CC Note field. Always list the lead referral first, and the Council return date last.
- Lead referral: Select the lead referral from the drop down list on the Details tab. This is especially important when there are more than two committees that the file is being referred to.
- Related files: Adding a file to the related files field on the Associations tab creates a link to the published file.
- Fiscal Note and ATS Review: Route the file for fiscal review by adding a sequence in the Approval Tracking tab. Note that timing of ATS review is important, and files in ATS review status have reduced functionality and visibility.
Dates and deadlines
CC Agenda Date and Item Submittal
Two key steps to ensure your file appears on the right Council agenda are entering the correct CC Agenda date and submitting the file via the item submittal form.
- Enter the Council meeting date in the CC Agenda Date field in Legistar. This is the date that the file will be introduced or should first appear on the Council agenda. Select Save.
- For every file that you create to go to the Common Council, enter the file number and Council meeting date via the online item submittal form. Staff who generate the agenda use the online submission form to create a checklist, which is then used to compare to the Legistar agenda to ensure no files are missing on the agenda.
Meeting deadlines
Completed legislative files (for introduction) are due at noon the Wednesday before the Council meeting. Refer to the calendar of meetings and deadlines for more information.
Related Processes
For information on processes that are similar to creating legislative files, refer to Related Legislative Processes.