Scott Tibbs
Herald-Times
July 1, 2006
Back to short writings.
Reorganize City Council meetings
To the editor:I attended the June 21 city council meeting, and was again discouraged at how these meetings are conducted. Several people attended the meeting for the vote on the John Hopkins grants. It took the council over 90 minutes to get to the first item on the agenda. This is because of council comments at the beginning of the meeting, as well as a lengthy report on tax abatements from the mayor's office.
When the Republicans took control of the Monroe County Council in the 2002 elections, they moved council comments and public comment on items not on the agenda to the end of the meeting. This was a good move both for citizens who attend the meeting for a specific agenda item and county employees who needed to stay to present their items to the council. It was a stark contrast to the Democrat-dominated city council, where a 90-minute delay between the start of the meeting and the first action item on the agenda is not uncommon.
It would show a much greater respect for the citizens of Bloomington to move council comments and reports from city departments to the end of the meeting.
Scott Tibbs