1977-01-19 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

2 The Open Meeting Law From the beginning there was conjecture that the open meeting law would lengthen the sessions of governmental bodies. Because in New Brighton's case there are several reasons why meetings have lengthened, there is no way of gauging the impact of the open meeting law here. Recent research conducted by the University of Minnesota provides a good deal of substantiation to the theory that the law does lengthen meetings. Again, however, the Council has little or no control over this phenomena, but simply must respond to it. Increase in Matters Sub-iect to Public Hearing While this factor is directly linked to factors 1, 2, and 4, it deserves separate comment. During the past several years more and more public hearings have been held by the Council. Some of this has occurred because of new ordinance requirements. We believe another major factor is that with an in-house planning staff more actions requiring hearings are "caught" and processed. Regardless of source the public hearings are with us and during the past year directly or indirectly probably consumed close to 50% of the Council's time. Recognizing this fact may be the most critical issue to be faced by the Council and definitely has a major impact on the remainder of this report. Increased Discussion on the Part of Council Members Again from an observer perspective, we see the present Council spending more time than past councils discussing issues. While many of these issues are planning in nature, many are not. The prime difference from the past would not appear to be in questions and answers but rather with each individual Council member frequently stating their respective position on a issue. Of all of the four major factors listed this factor would appear to be the one over which the Council has the greatest control. This is not intended to mean, however, that this practice should be discontinued since the Council may view it as an essential ingredient of the representative process. Goals With the above historical backdrop it would next be useful to state some of the goals we have heard regarding meetings and agendas from various Council and staff members. Those goals are; 1. Reduce the length of Council meetings; 2. Reduce the lateness of Council meetings; 3. Be more responsibe to the members of the public attending meetings (attend to those present before late in the evening); ~.~. Provide more time to consider certain agenda items or items there is no time to consider at the present; 5. More efficiently and effectively utilize the staff.