Web posted
Thursday, June 14, 2007
City changes day, time for work session
By JAMES JORDAN
Traveler Editor
Beginning next week, the City Commission will hold its work session meetings at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays. For several years the commission has had these meetings at noon on Friday to prepare for the Tuesday night meeting.
Commissioners feel this will make the meetings more accessible to the public, and will be more convenient for all involved. It will also be more convenient for local news media coverage.
In work sessions, presentations are made and issues are discussed in detail. Also at those meetings the commission decides whether to take issues to the main commission meeting. The commission does not vote no issues at the sessions.
Commissioner Scott Margolius presented the idea to the commission at a recent meeting. He would like to see more people come to meetings, and he thought this would help make the work sessions more accessible.
The new time will also be more convenient for commissioners, many of whom own businesses.
Commissioner Patrick McDonald said the new time would be "less cumbersome."
In the past commissioners have worked individually with different departments in the city. With the new date, the entire commission will be more involved on various issues. This could lead to more in- depth discussions with the whole group.
Commissioners on Thursday were not sure what issues would be discussed at Monday's work session.
The commission is considering making some changes in how it operates. One potential change would be to change the legal definition of a quorum. A quorum is a majority of the commission, and is required to hold a vote.
With only five members, two commissioners cannot talk about city business if they are together, or even if they happened to meet in a public place.
If they change the quorum definition to four instead of three, two commissioners could talk and not have to worry about legal restrictions.
The state league of municipalities has suggested that cities with five members make the change in the definition of quorum size.
McDonald said the change "just makes more sense."
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