Beginning with its Jan. 5 meeting, the village council will try out a new meeting format and schedule that calls for one less meeting a month.
Instead of holding four alternating workshop and regular meetings, the council will hold meetings on the first, second and third Tuesdays that combine the informal discussion of workshop meetings with the formal votes now undertaken at regular council meetings.
Agendas for workshop and regular meetings are different, with the public invited to address each discussion item in turn at workshop meetings, while public comments are held to two occasions, for comments pertaining to the agenda and general comments, during regular meetings.
During the trial period, “each meeting will combine the elements of both meeting formats, allowing for informal discussions and formal council votes to occur at all meetings,” according to a release on the village Web site.
“Meetings will be more streamlined and efficient and will offer the public additional opportunities to comment at each meeting.”
Many observers have noted that council meetings have, in general, become more streamlined during the tenure of Mayor Ron Sandack, who also has prompted the village to provide MP3 downloads of meetings since taking office in May 2007.
The council will decide whether to make the changes permanent after the January trial period.
Can someone clarify, will there still be two weeks’ notice of matters and two weeks’ opportunities for the public to comment, as now?
I received this private reply: “Yes. There will be two opportunities for consideration and public comment.” Details next week.
John, as far as I understand yes. The only thing changing right now is the frequency and the council meeting/workshop combination of meetings. It remains to be seen if this combo of the meetings and triming of one less meeting will in fact carry on throughout the new year.
An old-timer informs me that back in the days of mayors Jon Council and Betty Cheever, the village council met every Monday for a workshop session at 6:30 p.m. followed by a regular session at 7:30.
“The meetings were very smooth indeed. Items on the active agenda for the regular meeting were carried forward from a prior week’s workshop. They were never acted upon the same night without special action to waive the policy (and it had to be for a very good reason).”
Apparently, the more things change…
Not sure but Hauck council days maybe did that too. One benefit is that if something needs further work-shopping it can be slotted the following week instead of two weeks later, saving some time.