by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
The City Council’s regular Tuesday meetings have started at 6 p.m. for more than five years. But Council president Elaine Brown says the starting time might be moved a couple hours earlier.
“We’re not going to rush into anything,” said Brown, “but we’ve looked at other counties, and what we’ve found is that in many cases they start earlier than we do and have no problems doing it that way.”
According to the Council’s research department, Florida counties, including Orange, Dade and Palm Beach meet as early as 9 a.m.
“We have reason to believe that starting the meetings earlier will still allow the public plenty of time to get downtown and speak at the appropriate times,” said Brown. “Many times they only come to speak about one particular bill anyway.”
According to Council rules, the public’s first opportunity to speak takes place approximately halfway through the meeting after presentations have been made and the consent agenda passed. A second opportunity is held at the end of the meeting.
“That means the public might have to wait a while, sometimes until 11 p.m. or midnight,” said Brown. “Instead of having to come downtown and waiting for your chance to speak, you’ll basically be able to come down after we have gotten a portion of the agenda behind us.
“No one will be left behind if we start earlier.”
Brown said she will ask Council member Suzanne Jenkins, who chairs the Government Performance, Audit, Technology & Education Committee, to explore the idea further.
“I do think it’s worth looking into,” said Brown. “We will obviously hold public hearings on the matter, but at first blush it might be a positive step toward running our meetings more efficiently.”
Council attorneys agree.
“There are some issues that have to be addressed, State guidelines and things like that,” said Jason Teal, an attorney in the General Counsel’s Office. “But there is no reason we can’t coordinate the meeting times to work around those issues.
“In my opinion, meeting earlier does appeal to people who want to attend and speak. It appeals to people who want to be home early enough to make it for dinner and also to people who may have to work late.”
If the meeting times are ultimately moved forward, it will not be the first time. Prior to 1998, they began at 6:30 p.m. Earlier in the 1990s they started an hour later.