As I have been hearing behind the scenes, Mayor Paul has been asking the city councilors their thoughts are on changing the regular city council meeting to 6 PM instead of 7 PM.
I got word yesterday that he has been fielding opinions from the council. If it goes to a vote, he will probably have the 4-5 votes he needs.
As you know, I’m against this change (I actually wish it would have stayed on Monday nights and the School Board and Minnehaha County Commission would change their meetings to 7 PM night meetings).
I think it is a good time for the working public to show up. It would be very difficult for people to make a 6 PM meeting if they have to work until 5 or 5:30. And BTW, these meetings are about the PUBLIC, not the elected officials or public employees, this is OUR meeting and it should accommodate us and our busy schedules, it is about open and transparent government.
Today at the city council informational, councilor Stehly made it public that the council was considering this move. She pointed out that if there would have been a regular 6 PM meeting tonight, the city council informational would have been cut short.
So why is the mayor pushing for this? Honestly, I think he wants to shorten the informational meetings for fewer questions, and he wants to limit public input, and lastly wants to get home earlier. Hey, Paul, if you don’t like being at the meetings, we can certainly change the charter so you don’t have to chair them anymore, but remember, you didn’t want that.
He has told the council that it is about the city employees coming to the Tuesday night meetings. As I have said in the past, the directors know what they signed up for, they are paid very well, and guess what, it is a PUBLIC sector job. Something else people may or may not know is that they get ‘comp’ time. In other words, if they have to spend a couple hours at the council meeting Tuesday Night, they can leave early on a different day, so it really isn’t cutting into their ‘private time’. I have also suggested if they don’t like working in the public sector, they can always work in the private sector with the rest of us, in a right to work state, where refusing to work overtime could result in termination, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. City employees don’t have it that tough, and I think PTH is just using them as an excuse for his own personal agenda.
UPDATE: PTH also said that the media requested the meetings start earlier, this is NOT true, some in the media have denied this. Also, PTH claims it is for people who ride the bus. Not sure about this one either.
I hope the council doesn’t move forward with this, but I have a feeling they will, and one more notch will be put on the closed government bedpost.
UPDATE II: I guess the council has changed their mind on this, and it probably doesn’t have the 4-5 votes to change. I guess the Deputy COS also said the administration is calling it off.