Council Schedule - Who Cares?

The City Council seems unable to decide on a schedule for its meetings.

For more than eighty years (PT has read newspaper reports from the early 1920s), the schedule had been ALTERNATE MONDAYS. One Monday an agenda-setting session, the next the business meeting, and so on, with fifth Mondays off.

In 2006, under the leadership of then Council President Ray Blanco, the schedule was changed to a ROLLING Monday and Wednesday setup. On a Monday an agenda-setting session and the immediately following Wednesday a business session, followed by a week with no meetings.

The reason given for this drastic change was that it was to accommodate Jenny Wenson-Maier, the Director of Public Works and Urban Development, who also happens to be a Councilor (and Council President) in Rahway, where she resides. It created quite a stir in a community where so many people who follow Council meetings also attend regular Wednesday Bible study in their churches.

There has been a great deal of dithering about whether to keep to this new schedule, revert to the traditional one or choose another pattern.

On the one hand, the new arrangement gives the Councilors time to spend with their families, as Councilor Simmons has pointed out. And to study up on issues under consideration, as Councilors Burney and Storch have mentioned.

On the other hand, the compression between agenda and business meetings makes life hellish for Municipal Clerk Laddie Wyatt and her staff. The Administration also seems to have problems keeping up with the changes requested in proposed resolutions and ordinances as can be seen in the unprecedented number of items withdrawn by the Administration after being published on the agenda.

There is another alternative. The City's special charter requires only a minimum of one meeting per month. It is conceivable, then, that the Council could meet once a month to set the agenda and once a month to conduct business. The advantage of such an arrangement would be that everybody gets -- theoretically -- the time needed to do the things they need to: the Council, the Clerk, and the Administration.

Does the public care?

That, dear readers, is your cue.

Go to THIS WEEK'S POLL (upper right-hand column) and register YOUR opinion.

-- Dan Damon

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