ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
If you've got your calendars penciled in for Roanoke City Council meetings on the second and fourth Mondays of the month next year, it's time to get your erasers out.
For the fourth time in the past 18 months, Roanoke City Council has changed its meeting times. And now it's changing dates, too.
Beginning in January, council will begin meeting on the first and third Mondays of each month. At least officially, meetings will begin at 12:30 p.m., rather than 3 p.m. as they do now.
The 5-1 vote, with one abstention, came on an emergency ordinance sponsored by Mayor David Bowers.
The only council member who objected was Councilman Mac McCadden, who suggested that to continue changing times is a disservice to the public.
"I've been here three years and five months. This is the fourth different change I've seen in terms of times for council meetings," McCadden said. "If you keep changing our weekly meeting times and dates to accommodate our schedules, I'm not sure we're doing the public any favors."
Feeling rushed by later meeting hours that often ran into dinner time, council for weeks has been quietly trying to figure out a more convenient time to meet.
"Frankly, the 3 p.m. schedule just does not give us enough time. We're pushing 5:30 now," Bowers said in justifying the change. "If we don't go to a longer day twice a month, we're going to have to go back to four meetings a month."
The mayor also said he would like to schedule luncheon meetings with other government leaders at 12:30 p.m. If there are none of those in the works, council could hold "executive sessions," which are closed to the public, between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.
That would leave open council meetings beginning at 2 p.m., an hour earlier than they do now.
January's first meeting, meanwhile, would be held on Tuesday, Jan. 2 because of the holiday..
For years prior to July 1994, council met each Monday at 2 p.m. except for the the second Monday of each month, when it met at 7 p.m. for public hearings.
In July of last year, the schedule was changed to twice-a-month meetings at 10 a.m., on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Public hearings on the second Monday each month continued at 7 p.m.
Last January, council changed the times of its Monday day meetings to 3 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of each month because the 10 a.m. meeting days ran so long.
In other action, council honored City Manager Bob Herbert, who on Nov. 20 completed a decade as City Manager.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB