If you have the alert on your calendar set for 5:30 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of the month so you won’t miss a single minute of a City Council meeting, you may need to make some revisions.
The city has announced that the Tuesday, Oct. 19 virtual City Council meeting – the council’s one business meeting of the month – will begin at 4 p.m. rather than the usual 5:30 p.m. However, there is the noteworthy exception that the purpose of meeting at 4 p.m. is for the City Council to go into closed session to discuss personnel and economic incentives. The notice states, “Council is scheduled to return to open session by 5:30 p.m. to proceed with the regular meeting agenda.”
Closed sessions have a tendency to run longer than anticipated particularly when personnel issues are involved, so intending to start the open portion of the meeting at 5:30 p.m. doesn’t necessitate that it will actually start at 5:30 p.m.
The Oct. 19 meeting is the last virtual meeting scheduled for the City Council. Beginning in November the City Council will go back to what it calls “hybrid” meetings where most and usually all of the members of the City Council are in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber and a limited number of people are allowed to attend the meeting in person.
The first hybrid meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1, and the second meeting of the month has been changed to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17.
The public will still be allowed to speak virtually at those meetings and those who do speak virtually are required to sign up by 5 p.m. the day prior to the meeting at https://form.jotform.com/202643500426041 . For the meeting on Monday, Nov. 1, which includes the monthly public forum, those speaking virtually will have to sign up by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29.
Those speaking in person at the hybrid meetings have the option of signing up before the meeting at https://form.jotform.com/202643500426041 or to sign up by 6:15 p.m. in the Council Chamber the day of the meeting.
