It’s a simple change but one that might make it easier for Lawrence residents to participate in the city’s decision-making process.

It doesn’t happen every week, but Lawrence City Commission meetings have been known to stretch well past some people’s regular bedtime. That means that many significant items at the end of the commission agenda may not come up at a reasonable hour. Not only may commissioners be getting a little bleary for these discussions but it also is less convenient for residents to participate in the process and still get up in time to make it to work the next morning.

To help remedy this situation, Commissioner Terry Riordan is floating the idea of starting commission meetings earlier than the current 6:35 p.m. His suggestion is that the commission begin the ceremonial part of its agenda at 5:30 p.m. Commissioners can deal with the proclamations and other ceremonial actions that occur at the beginning of the meeting and be ready to start their regular business meeting at 6 p.m.

That timing makes a lot of sense. Most people who wanted to attend the meeting would be off work in time to participate, and it would be less likely that those people still would be sitting around at 10 p.m. or later waiting for the agenda item they are interested in to come up.

The 6:35 p.m. start time was set some time ago to accommodate local cable television coverage of the meetings, but now that the city operates its own television feed on its own channel, it no longer needs to adhere to that schedule.

Commissioners say they want to get some feedback from the public before making the switch. Maybe some valid concerns will be raised, but at first glance starting City Commission meetings about an hour earlier seems like a good way to accommodate more public participation.