Scott Tibbs, at Hoosier Access, has a post about public meeting times that I wanted to flag, not so much to single out Scott, but to address this notion I hear occasionally about changing public meeting times to allow for participation by the public.
The state legislature should start by making it illegal for any local government elected body to meet before 6:00 p.m. Ideally, this should apply to boards and commissions as well, but the first priority should be to enable more public scrutiny of elected officials as they decide budgets and legislation. This does not need to be implemented immediately, as local government can be given a couple years to change their schedules to allow for more public participation.
The idea is that people will be more likely to go to these meetings if they are not during traditional work hours. It’s plausible on its face, but, in my experience, later meeting times do not result in a notable increase in public attendance of meetings. In addition, because you are holding these meetings after hours, the unit of government faces increased costs associated with employees working longer hours and keeping public buildings open later than usual. Finally, I tend to oppose the State telling local government how to run its business.
I’m not at all against the units of local government accommodating public interest. Sometimes there are issues that are contentious or capture the popular imagination; and where there is a great deal of public input to be had, the meetings should be held at times and places that are convenient to public input. But the truth is that the public, by and large, has little interest in the minutiae of government work; and has neither the time nor the inclination to investigate the details on most issues. The result of a mandatory post-6 p.m. meeting requirement would generally be empty meeting rooms, later at night.
I would suggest that, if work hours are a barrier to public participation in government, we start by expanding election hours or moving election days into times that are not traditional work hours. If that yields greater participation, maybe it would be time for serious consideration of a state mandate for moving meeting times.
A better proposal would require that all public meeting schedules be posted in a central government calendar electronically and video taped and available upon demand electronically like C-Span. It should include executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government in addition to the maze of quasi governmental entities such as municipal corporations (Sports/Tourism Authorities) Regulating bodies (IURC & IDEM)/ private subsidiaries of government (IEDC/ElavateIndiana/Police foundations/Casino backed development corps)
It’s not a bad suggestion for those serving on boards and commissions as well. Some people have a difficult time serving on boards and commissions here in Indianapolis that meet during the day because of conflicts with their jobs. What you wind up with are people who don’t have any trouble missing work to serve on one of these boards or commissions. A lot of good people are effectively disqualified from serving because of day-time meetings.
As a former County Attorney I found the County Commissioners in our small county often needed 5-6 hours to do the half-month business. Our Commissioners met once during the day, 9-4 and once in the evening 7-? (often midnight or later) each month. The work could not get done, with the variety of problems they tackled (and this was 20 years ago).
Your point about labor costs is a good one, they need staff support, and county employees to be there to report on the various issues.
One of the better things the Fishers Town Council does (and I have often been critical of them) is to hold regular council meetings in the evenings. They also live stream the regular council meetings from the town website, and council minutes are also available in a pretty timely manner.
They do not however, routinely allow citizen comment on anything other than those things legally required to be open to public hearing, such as budgets and annexations. Many other units of government DO allow, within reasonable limits, citizen comments. Some even have a short “open mike” period for citizens to raise issues, or to praise something good.
As Fishers transitions from “town” to “city”, I would urge the local government to be receptive to more citizen involvement and comment.
Ted, Our Indianapolis City-County Council meeting last night lasted until 11:00 p.m. I’ve seen them last even longer than that. I’m sure some of those council members couldn’t serve if their meetings took place during the day time. The Metropolitan Development Commission and BZA meetings, which meet frequently, often extend on for hours, and they are conducted in the afternoon. I represented a school employee in a matter before a school board where the meeting didn’t conclude until close to 1:00 a.m. I think our school boards are accustomed to those very late night meetings.