1976-10-26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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To: Honorable Mayor and Councilmen From: Councilman Hardt Re: Proposal to start council meetings earlier I would like to communicate to my fellow councilmembers some of my thoughts about the subject of length and starting times of meetings. The council will recall that I proposed that this subject be brought up at this meeting, and that I proposed. that council meetings start at 7:00. There are several reasons for making this proposal. First, council meetings have been averaging between five and six hours quite regularly for the past several months. This means we have been working into thw earlier hours of the morning quite often. Without even mentioning the inconvenience to councilmembers because of this arrangement, I think is is obvious that this is causing an inconvenience to the staff, and to any people on our agendas who are to appear bed'ore the council later on. Second, the council has been transacting business at such a late hour that we can not expect real citizen involvement in some of these decisions. We can not realistically expect people to come to oiir meetings at 11 otclock and midnight to express their concerns. I feel this is closing the government process to those people who want to be heard. Third, there are certain procedural actions the council takes which are costly in terms of time, and,I feels could be shortened or perhaps eliminated. Non -controversial items such as receiving letters, and some recommendations of the administration take time to vote. This time could be shortened or used more wisely. In sum, then, there are practical difficulties with our present format, and violations of our philosophy of keeping the government process as open as possible. This situation of long meetings, and late meetings has not changed significantly since the previous council, and a number of us pledged to improve this situation. Therefore, I am recommending the council consider the se possible solutions: I. Start meetings earlier. While this might be somewhat inconvenient for council members who work late, this will make it more convenient'efor people on our agenda to get in and out earlier. Also, if we find it is necessary to discuss an item at length, we will have the time to do this. We will also be keeping with the spirit of more openness in the governmental process. 2. Establish a consent calendar. This has been done by the MoundsView Council. Items which are commonly non -controversial can be placed on this agenda and passed in mass. Councilmen may object to an item being on this calendar and may request to have it removed. This may shorten the time we spend on these ftems. 3. Set a time for adjournment. This action might be talen after we have held our public hearings. This would force us to work under a deadline, something that all of us could benefit from, and something we have all had experience with. fit. Start public hearings at 7'PM. This suggestion made by Councilman Fisher does the same as #1 above in that we start our meetings quite often with public hearings.