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Council to meet hour earlier
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The Ventura City Council, notorious for long meetings that often stretch into the next day, will shift to an earlier starting time beginning Monday.
The council will now meet at 6 p.m. Mondays instead of 7 p.m., at City Hall, 501 Poli St.
Also, starting in July, the council will meet three Mondays a month instead of the current four.
"It's pretty exhausting to be on the City Council," Deputy Mayor Bill Fulton wrote in his blog. "More often than we'd like, we wind up going to 12:30 or 1 a.m. We can't make good decisions at that hour — and it doesn't do the public any good to take up important items at midnight."
With meetings in recent months repeatedly stretching into early Tuesday, Mayor Christy Weir suggested an earlier starting time. The change was unanimously approved.
Public speakers frequently are limited to no longer than two or three minutes on an issue and often are cut off. City staff members are supposed to keep their presentations to less than 10 minutes as a general rule.
But the seven council members have no time limits. The mayors, who run the meetings, have used hand gestures and other signals to get council members to finish their comments.
"We'll see whether it allows us to get to important items at a decent hour and get home a little earlier," Fulton said.
Posted by shaver_one on May 5, 2008 at 11:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
1. The council should allot the first half hour as EXTRA time for citizens to voice their complaints, in addition to the already scheduled time given them.
2. If Fulton feels "It's pretty exhausting to be on the City Council," maybe he should quit.
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