Council Calendar - Still Wishing

Image: Sunlit ornamental grass (Miscanthus sinensis zebrina)

My wish that the City Council would adopt a traditional calendar for 2011 did not come true. I was hoping changes would be made in time to start off the year with the old pattern of regular meetings on the first and third Mondays and agenda-fixing meetings on the preceding Mondays.

As several dedicated council watchers have noted, the once-a-month regular meeting has become an endurance contest, running to four or five hours. Those who attempt to report to the general public on the doings of the governing body are challenged by the sheer mass of information to convey. And even though the meetings are taped for viewing on the local television channels, the likelihood of a citizen watching for several hours is slim.

Twice the governing body has revised the schedule, once for a Monday-Wednesday plan and then for the current one. But by starting the process after Jan. 1, when the old schedule has already been adopted and published, a new one kicks in around April with much confusion.

For several years, City Clerk Laddie Wyatt and I used to go over the upcoming calendar together as a sort of double-check on making sure holidays and elections were taken into account. I printed out a 2011 calendar earlier this evening and I will miss that little friendly exercise of confirming the dates.

As for changes, because the calendar is the subject of an ordinance, amendments must be passed on two readings and then they take effect 20 days later. That's how it gets to be April before the changes take place.

On a related issue, there was talk of reverting to a calendar year for the budget instead of the using fiscal year that runs from July 1 to June 30, spanning two calendar years. But that idea is still in the talking stage. The change would align the municipal budget year with that of the state, although the main reason to do so, more timely receipt of special state aid, has become moot with the city's current stance of not applying for such aid because so many fiscal constraints come with it.

There is something almost magically hopeful about a new calendar or a blank diary. What will the year hold, we wonder. Around this time we look back even as we are looking forward, contrasting the year in review with our best wishes for the coming one.

Some of us are still wishing for a less trying City Council meeting schedule.

--Bernice