The City Council uses four standing committees, each composed of 3 or 4 aldermen. The Council refers almost all of the matters it handles to one of these committees to study and provide a report with a recommendation for action. In 2026, through July 20th, every final action on a committee report was approved by the full City Council, and Council adopted the action recommended by the committee without change.
That means much of the detailed work and development of recommendations already takes place among smaller groups of aldermen, rather than all 14. For more, see Council or Committee, Who Makes the Decisions?