By day, Kathi Prewitt is a business manager for a busy bank. By night, she’s a mom and a city council member for Snoqualmie. So the one thing that drives her crazy is to feel like she’s wasting her time.

So when Prewitt started thinking about what she wanted to accomplish at this week’s council retreat, she decided it was time to look at how the council organizes itself.

Each city council in the Valley tackles the issues of the day by committee, breaking the issues (and themselves, in groups of three) off into four or five categories.

It’s been at least eight years since the Snoqualmie City Council reorganized its council committees. Back in 2004, a rapidly growing city was building so many parks, it was decided that parks issues were best addressed as part of the planning committee, which looks at how the city will grow and change.

Today, the city’s parks are pretty much a done deal. Now, they could well go under the community heading. Or, maybe, they could be linked with public works. It all depends on how you break down the issue.

Snoqualmie’s five committee themes may not even be the sole, best way to organize the city’s business. Notice how every Valley city seems to approach things a little differently?

To Prewitt’s mind, Snoqualmie has already done a good job of streamlining its own internal operations during the recession. Now, it’s time for the council to streamline its own brainpower, pondering the most efficient, up-to-date ways for the council to consider its business.

At the same time, council committees may also be considering splitting the focus of their bi-monthly meetings. Once a month, they would handle an agenda of business. The other meeting would be a deep-diving discussion of policy and strategy.

Committee meetings and broad strokes of policy may sound boring on the surface, but I can’t help but sense something intriguing here.

At the most basic level, everything in life can be organized by ideas. They are the frame that gives shape to all that we do. So it’s healthy, now and then, to take a fresh look at the underlying ideas—ideas like “public safety” and “Community affairs”—and ask ourselves to define priorities and needs.

As the Snoqualmie council begins to ponder new ways of organizing its own thoughts, I’m reminded that we all should remember to step back from time to time, look at our communities in the broadest of strokes, and ask ourselves what our needs and missions should be. Self-knowledge, in a citizen as much as a city, has its uses.

Council breakdown

In Snoqualmie, the council is organized by:

• Community and Economic Affairs

• Finance and Administration

• Planning and Parks

• Public Safety

• Public works

In North Bend, the council meets on:

• Community and Economic Development

• Finance and Administration

• Public Health and Safety

• Transportation and Public Works

In Carnation, they’re organized into:

• Community Development

• Finance and Operations

• Public Health and Safety

• Utilities and Public Facilities