San Diego

Without so much as a mention of Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s proposal to abolish the City Council’s committee system, the city’s nine council members unanimously agreed Thursday to hold special monthly sessions devoted to major issues confronting the city.

On Nov. 25 in the heat of a battle over 1989 committee chairmanships, O’Connor proposed to abolish the council’s 15-year-old system of routing legislation through four standing committees composed of a majority of the council’s nine members.

O’Connor said then that the policy change was dictated by voter approval of district-only elections, which, she believed, would make council members more responsive to their districts than to the entire city and hamper the council’s consensus approach to governing.

But members of the council’s Rules Committee showed little support for the idea when they approved the chairmanships in December, agreeing only to bring it before the full council for discussion at Thursday’s workshop. With the concept essentially dead on arrival, the matter was not even mentioned by council members, who covet the little-known posts.

O’Connor said Thursday that she had gained a partial victory by winning approval of the monthly discussion sessions, though she was well aware that her proposal to abolish committees would not pass.

“Just because there’s no support doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea,” she said.

Last November, the city’s Charter Review Commission explored the idea of abolishing council committees but decided to take no action in the belief that the matter would better be handled by the council.

The council also unanimously approved a resolution to abide by three-minute time limits on speeches by council members at its meetings.