Troy's Council Rulebook Has a Problem

Vol. III, No. 283 - And it's Bigger Than One Bad Meeting Last July

This past Monday on March 9th, Troy City Council gathered in a committee-of-the-whole session to review its own Rules of Council. This is usually done towards the beginning of each council term, but the busy first quarter lead to this being put on the back burner.

The stated purpose was narrow: consider three proposed changes from Councilmember Jeff Schilling, all stemming from a July 2025 committee meeting about the Prouty Plaza streetscape project that he felt was improperly controlled.​

After a forty minute discussion, Council voted unanimously to change nothing.

But the real story isn’t what happened on March 9th. It’s what the rules themselves reveal when you actually read them.​

One Meeting. Real Frustration.

On July 14, 2025, the Streets & Sidewalks Committee met to receive an informational update on Prouty Plaza design. No action item was on the agenda. When Councilmember Schilling attempted to offer recommendations and push back on the project direction, he was told that wasn’t what the meeting was for. When the discussion got heated, the chair adjourned.​

His frustration is legitimate. But the problem isn’t really about that one meeting — it’s that Troy’s rulebook provides almost no guidance for situations like it. When informal norms broke down on July 14th, there was nothing written to appeal to.

What the Rules Actually Say

Troy’s Rules of Council are a 13-page document last updated in February 2024. They do a fairly reasonable job governing what happens on formal council meeting nights — how ordinances are read, how votes are recorded, how the public can comment.

Where they fall apart is everything that happens before a vote is ever taken.​

Consider these gaps:

Committee meetings have no operating rules. The document describes what committees are, but says nothing about how committee meetings are conducted — no agenda-setting process, no standard procedure for comments from other council members or the public, no adjournment procedure, no distinction between action meetings and informational briefings.​

Council members have no clear path to initiate legislation. Rule VII of the Council Rules confirms that members may prepare ordinances or resolutions. That’s it. There is no written process for how a council member submits a legislative idea, who they submit it to, what timeline applies, or what happens if the President of Council doesn’t act on it. The administration has an embedded pipeline. Individual council members have one sentence.​

The Committee of the Whole is governed by 19 words. Troy’s most powerful informal deliberative tool — used for major policy discussions, capital project planning, and cross-committee questions — is defined entirely as follows: “As needed, the President of Council may assign a subject to Council for discussion as a Committee of the Whole.”

Who can request one, how it is noticed, whether it can produce a recommendation, how it is run — none of it is addressed.​

Why Residents Should Care

These aren’t technical complaints about parliamentary procedure. They are structural questions about who controls what residents get to see — and when.

When a committee meeting is held as an “informational briefing,” the design direction on a major public project can effectively be locked in before elected members have a formal opportunity to reshape it. If an “informational breifing” brings up new information that could change thoughts and feelings of committee members, what is the proper procedure to amend or withdraw commitee recommendations before they go to the entire council?

Troy’s council members are elected to deliberate on behalf of residents. But deliberation requires a level playing field — clear rules that apply equally whether you’re the committee chair or a member in the minority, whether you’re the city administration bringing a proposal or an individual council member with an idea.​

The March 9th vote to keep the rules as-is was unanimous. That doesn’t mean the rules are adequate. It means the people who benefit most from the current informal structure — consciously or not — didn’t want to think about changing the structure.

Better rules aren’t about distrust. They’re about making sure that what happens in Troy’s committee rooms is visible, predictable, and equally accessible to every elected voice. Residents deserve a rulebook that makes that possible — not one that leaves it to chance.

Announcing our March Community Survey!

Every other month, this publication takes time to ask our readers how they feel about the happenings in their hometown! What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? Is your hometown headed in the right direction? Our survey is the easiest way for you to express your thoughts. Next month, this publication will report out on the results.

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