A Question of Timing

For town Councilman Bob Jackson, a simple show of hands made his point:

"How many people are at this meeting because they work at a night shift?" he asked during the town's regular finance committee meeting Monday, Aug. 8. 

No one raised his or her hand. The idea of making the finance committee available to night-shift workers has been the cornerstone of the argument of keeping it at 8 a.m., Jackson said. And the lack of raised hands disproved the validity of that argument, he added.

The finance committee has traditionally been held early in the morning Mondays before that following Wednesday's town council meeting. 

"I'd like to move this meeting to the committee meetings on Wednesday night," Jackson said.

This would require the committee meetings to be held the second Wednesday of the month (instead of first Wednesday) and the town council meetings to be moved to the third Wednesday of the month (instead of second Wednesday), he said.

For Jackson, it's a matter of convenience for the council members and constituents, who might have a hard time making the important finance committee meeting where many town council actions are taken. 

requested the meeting be changed to a more convenient time for working people. 

But Jackson — who has made the request before and has gotten used to push back from his peers — did not gain favor of his fellow council members. 

"It gives people the opportunity to go to a council meeting at night and people who work at night to go to a finance committee during the day," Mayor Bill Collins said during the meeting.

After the meeting, he said in an interview: "What we have now works perfectly fine … it's not an issue."

Collins added that the town will be exploring live feeds of council and committee meetings in the near future to aid with transparency.

According to Jackson, one of the arguments against the 8 a.m. meeting is that some people feel the early meeting time discourages attendance to a meeting where many important decisions are made. 

And not all citizens agree that the 8 a.m. meeting time is inconvenient.

Citizen Dora Ann Reaves stood up during the committee discussion to voice her opinion. 

"(It allows) business people to come before their business day starts," Reaves said. "Meetings at night, meetings during the day — I understand the various times … I like this meeting."

After the meeting, Jackson told Patch he would not bring up changing the meeting time at Wednesday's regular town council meeting, but planned to bring it up during the September meeting.