They are not banned from talking to staff. They are banned from running staff.

Under Topeka’s council-manager charter, the governing body is legislative and policy-making. It has no administrative powers. The city manager is the administrative head. That line is in the charter itself.

The current Governing Body Rules (effective August 11, 2026) spell out what that means in practice:

What councilmembers may not do

• Interfere directly with the conduct of any municipal department.
• Give instructions or directions to department heads or other city employees (except the assistant to the Council).
• Give individual orders to the city manager. Direction to the manager has to come from the governing body after a majority (six) approves it. The manager is supposed to ignore one-off instructions and send them back to the body as a whole.

What they may do

• Ask the city manager, department heads, or their designees for routine information.
• Ask the city manager for lengthy or detailed reports (those requests go through the manager, not around him).
• Talk directly with a staff member when the manager has assigned that person to a specific task — including staffing a council committee.
• Provide input to the manager on the assistant to the Council / assistant to the Mayor.

So a councilmember calling Public Works for a status on a pothole, drainage question, or a constituent complaint is generally allowed as a request for information. A councilmember calling Public Works and telling them which project to do first, who to hire, or how to run the shop is the part the rules treat as improper.

The practical rule of thumb in a council-manager city: ask questions and gather facts; do not supervise. Meetings with staff for briefings, committee work, or constituent follow-up are normal. Meetings that turn into management are what the charter and Rule 2.6 are written to stop.