You got to hand it to Mayor Randy Erdman. He has brought decorum and procedure to the Albert Lea City Council meetings.

In an environment without order, speaking from the audience seats didn&8217;t seem out of place. Rants at the podium didn&8217;t seem out of place. Sloppy motions didn&8217;t seem out of place.

But by holding everyone to standards for civil debate &8212; councilors, city staff and audience members alike &8212; it sure makes the disorder stand out like a sore thumb. Erdman has done well.

But two disorderly aspects of the City Council meetings remain:

1. The public forum. It&8217;s not just about longtime vocal critic Roger Bok, either. He and others use the forum to bash &8212; at times with name calling &8212; city staff, city elected officials and other local officials. Some merely seek to entertain the audience watching on TV at home with silly and often incorrect comments.

Albert Lea needs to act like the bigger city it wants to become. Here are some suggestions for the public forum, inspired by the city of Rochester&8217;s rules.

– Move the forum to the beginning of the meeting. Get it out of the way.

– Limit the length of the forum to 15 minutes. Anyone who signs up to speak and doesn&8217;t get to will be first at the next council meeting. (Maybe even have meetings start at 6:45 p.m.)

– Citizens may use the forum to address the council once per month.

– Questions posed by a speaker will be answered in writing. Avoid the back-and-forth arguing.

Albert Lea Economic Development Director Dan Dorman made a good point Monday. He noted the city has a representative form of government. That means if people need to address a city matter, they can approach the councilor who represents their ward. Dorman also had concerns about the public forum wasting city time and expenses.

People can always approach the mayor, city manager or city staff, too. In fact, many of the questions asked at the public forum can be addressed at City Hall during regular daytime hours.

If an issue must be discussed at the council level, people can request to be placed on the agenda. It&8217;s not that difficult.

2. Surprise motions. City Council members on Monday made three motions during the time for council comments, and two of them were approved. These became resolutions that were passed but were not on the agenda. This surprises fellow council members and the audience.

Councilors have plenty of time to get topics on the agenda before the meetings. To show order works both ways, if the council alters the public forum, it should also quit passing surprise resolutions. The discussions on these items only sound like inside baseball to the general public.

In fact, the practice of passing resolutions that weren&8217;t on the agenda only shows how pointless the Thursday night &8220;preagenda&8221; meetings really are.

It was clear Monday some council members didn&8217;t like making on-the-spot, unresearched decisions. When a council member makes such a resolution, another council member should make a second motion to table the original motion until the next council meeting so it can be on the agenda. This would keep them from having to make hasty, forced choices and make the council more orderly and professional.