How the council operates is primary of focus of proposed resolution | Local News

Regular council meetings have been held at 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month, unless there has been a need to reschedule. Suggestions ranged from 9 a.m. to keeping the current evening start time.

Councilor Robert Corn leaned toward an early start time, but that didn’t sit well with some of the members who prefer the meeting to start late in the afternoon or early evening.

“5:30 (p.m.) even is a little closer to getting us home before midnight,” said Councilor Cristina Arnold.

The meetings ending at midnight “is by our own fault, our own fruition of how we conduct the meeting,” said Councilor Edward Heldenbrand, who also chairs the Legal Committee. “My concern is public participation. The last meeting we had was out at 8 o’clock (in the evening).”

The late, long meetings tend to keep people from wanting to comment on city issues causing them concern, some at the meeting noted. 

Corn said the evening meetings are a problem for parents with children who require some sort of supervision because child care is difficult to find in the evening, which would be “restricting a certain piece of our population.”

And “if they bring their kids, you know how distracting they can be … if we’re conducting serious business,” he said.

Having council meetings that end very late can result in overtime costs for some of the employees who need to be present because of the subject matter.

However, “the majority of staff who attend the meetings are salaried, not hourly,” said Councilor Juan…