City Council Calendar

If you bought a 2008 calendar, you may have to hold off on penciling in the City Council meeting dates, because the matter is up in the air.

City Clerk Laddie Wyatt presented the council with a proposed calendar for 2008 that started with a reorganization meeting on Jan. 10 and meetings on the traditional Mondays-only format.

For decades, the council held regular meetings on first and third Mondays, with agenda sessions on preceding Mondays. But in 2006, then-Council President Ray Blanco called for a schedule that had agenda sessions on Mondays with regular meetings on Wednesdays of the same week, and then a week or so off.

The council agreed early in 2007 that they didn’t like the schedule, but could not decide among three options and ended up keeping the objectionable one.

On Monday, the council rejected Wyatt’s proposed reorganization date in favor of Jan. 2. A council majority favored returning to the traditional Mondays only schedule.

In addition, Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson reminded the council that the Monday-Wednesday schedule was adopted by ordinance on two readings and so the same would have to take place for any revision.

So it appears that the New Year will start with special meetings until the council can fix its calendar.

--Bernice Paglia