The city council may only meet half as often if an ordinance amendment is adopted at Tuesday’s council meeting. The amendment would cut back council meetings to twice a month — the second and fourth Tuesdays. Currently, the council meets the first four Tuesdays of every month.
Another part of the amendment requires citizens wishing to address the council to sign a card and restrict their comments to City of Peoria issues. It’s not clear whether the card would have to be signed before the meeting, as is the County Board’s policy, or just before the person speaks.
CJ: Is the June 5.2007 agenda the first public mention of this proposed change? (I have been on vacation.)
Would it make the two monthly meetings marathon sessions?
What are the benefits/negatives from making these proposed changes (in your opinion)?
They tried this a couple years ago. It didn’t really work. At least then they had work sessions on the other Tuesday nights so they got questions answered and were able to fly through the meetings.
Ryan is right, they have tried this before – at least on two occassions over the last ten years. The effort to move to twice a month meetings is usually spearheaded by City Clerk Mary Haynes (though not sure if she is involved in this effort or not) to reduce the workload of her staff.
There really is no reason that less than weekly meetings can’t work. All it takes is for the Council to spend less time pontificating during meetings, and more time in preparation for the meetings. In my guy, I believe it would work if the meetings weren’t televised by eliminating the need to continually “prove to the citizens how smart they are” and eliminating the desires of some to make their political points against the other council members.
I hope its successful this time because their really is no need to meet that frequently. Look at the agenda’s over the last few months – usually there are several items that have been deferred from previous meetings either because they needed more time to study it or needed to delay a vote for political purposes/cover.
Attention 2nd District and CJ-
Rumor has it that Barbara Van Auken is leading the charge to dismantle the Heart of Peoria Commission.
My read on this is she does not want the commission to upstage her. The Heart of Peoria Commission is starting to make a difference and she sees them threatening her power. Barbara does not want to share the credit for anything positive that happens in her district or the city for that matter. With the Heart of Peoria Commission out of the way she can grease the wheel for developers to do more projects like the “wonderful” campus town! YUCK
Those of us living in the second district know Barbara won her seat on the council because we needed someone (think pit-bull) to defeat Marcella- not because Barbara had the necessary savvy to figure out how to make our city great. She claims she’s working to make our city safer and she claims she is an advocate for the older neighborhoods, but think about her actions. Think about how she votes and don’t forget her long winded arrogant pontificating. Do we really like that doctor’s office on Knoxville? Do you think she represented us well during the talks with the hospitals and Bradley? Hasn’t she disappointed us on many important issues?
Her actions show she is influenced by incompetent city staff and she will yield to pressure from developers who do not care about the quality of our older neighborhoods. Barbara is being manipulated by developers and city employees who see the Heart of Peoria Commission as too much to handle. And don’t forget that some developers and city staff want the entire city to look like ugly University Avenue. If you truly care about Peoria’s older neighborhoods and the future of our city give Barbara a call and let her know the Heart of Peoria Commission is important for the future of our city and she needs to reconsider her attitude.
Barbara needs to know the Heart of Peoria Commission is an asset to the Peoria City Council because they are working for the betterment of the older parts of our city and they have the potential to take politics out of the conversation. For over thirty years we have watched the politicians screw up the city- how much more are we willing to endure?
Second District- let Barbara and all the city council people know the Heart of Peoria Commission should not be dismantled and they need more say in planning decisions.
George
Karrie — This is the first time it will be brought up in a regular council meeting, but it was brought up before at a council retreat, which was a public meeting, I believe. It’s not the first time I’ve heard of these changes. Whether it will make for marathon meetings, I guess we’ll have to see.
Gee, limit public comments by filling out a card? Some of those people can’t write so there goes their comments….
Van Auken? I told you so. I knew it when she went back peddling on getting rid of the garbage fee she said she hated when running for election.
Influenced? No kidding.
Two meetings a month? Where will I get my comedy the other two weeks?