Posted: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 7:00 pm
A recent Lincoln City Council meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and ended at 1:20 a.m.
That’s almost eight hours of government in action — or inaction, depending on your point of view.
These days the average City Council meeting lasts about three hours.
On Monday, Councilman Jonathan Cook suggested the city hold more evening meetings.
Right now, the council has one night meeting a month. On the last Monday of every month, they meet at 5:30 p.m. Otherwise, they meet at 1:30 on Mondays.
Cook says every time there’s a really controversial issue, people want them to wait for a night meeting.
For obvious reasons.
The average person has a day job and doesn’t have the luxury of taking time off to lobby the council.
The more inaccessible the meeting time, the more meetings are dominated by gadflies with a lot of time on their hands. Hardly a finger on the city pulse.
Occasionally, a hot issue such as building a new Wal-Mart will bring out the masses. But otherwise, attendance at council meetings can be lacking.
Even a recent night meeting on blighting the area targeted for a new arena attracted only six people to the microphone.
Really?
Only six people in this city of about 250,000 residents had something to say about whether the city should take the first step toward a $244 million project?
Perhaps everybody knows there are many more steps to go.
Or perhaps they figure they’ll have their say in the voting booth some day.
Perhaps they don’t want to wait through what could be hours of testimony on zoning changes and setbacks before the council gets to the good stuff.
Indeed, the council’s prolonged process can be maddening. Ordinances are handled in no less than three meetings.
The first week, they’re just on the agenda for the viewing. The second week, people get to weigh in. The third week, the council votes.
It takes a pretty potent issue to bring people down to two council meetings. It’d be nice if they could consolidate that process into one meeting. Maybe even take a vote right after the public hearing ends, rather than make people wait to hear their vote at the end of the meeting.
Because most people aren’t willing to sit for eight hours to hear a council decision. At times, people have had to wade through hours of testimony, then wait while the council takes a 20-minute dinner break, before hearing a verdict on their issue.
But that’s a whole ’nother issue.
For now, we’ll settle for more night meetings.