photo by: City of Lawrence

Members of the Lawrence City Commission meet Tuesday, March 3, 2020, at City Hall.

The City Commission’s Tuesday evening meetings have been known go into the wee hours of Wednesday, but that could soon change if city leaders decide to amend rules governing their meetings.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider adopting an amendment to the section of city code related to meetings of the governing body and a new resolution that lays out the commission’s meeting rules and procedures, according to a city staff memo to the commission. One of the more significant changes would be to add an adjournment time of 11 p.m. to City Commission meetings, which currently have no end time.

The memo states that having a set end time for meetings would have the advantage of encouraging efficiency in accomplishing commission business, but that a disadvantage would be that a member of the public could attend a meeting out of interest in a particular agenda item that could potentially be moved to a future agenda.

Commission meetings, which are held the first three Tuesdays of the month and begin at 5:45 p.m., regularly go for more than three hours, and on occasion have not adjourned until after midnight. In rare instances, typically when a certain topic receives a lot of public comment, meetings have gone until closer to 1 a.m. The potential changes to the commission’s meeting format were arrived at following a survey of city commissioners, who expressed concerns about the length of meetings, including how publicly accessible agenda items are that are discussed at such late hours.

The commission initially discussed potential changes to its meeting procedures at a meeting in February. At that time, the commission discussed the possibility of going back to meeting four times per month as a potential way to decrease the length of meetings, but there was not enough support among commissioners to do so. Instead, the commission was more interested in having a format similar to the Planning Commission, in which a meeting end time is established but the commission may vote to extend the meeting.

The City Commission voted unanimously in 2016 — including current commissioners Lisa Larsen and Stuart Boley — to reduce the number of monthly meetings from four to three following a recommendation from former City Manager Tom Markus, as the Journal-World reported. Markus said at the time that city staff were in “constant agenda prep,” and that having only three meetings per month would be more efficient and free up staff to focus more on commission priorities.

Regarding the changes to meeting length, the resolution states meetings shall adjourn no later than 11 p.m., but that any business begun before that time may be concluded past 11 p.m. More specifically, commissioners can extend a meeting for a “specific period of time” by a majority vote, but if there are not enough votes to do so, the meeting will adjourn. Should a meeting adjourn before the conclusion of all scheduled agenda items, any remaining business will be continued to either the next commission meeting or to an alternate date determined by the commission.

The ability to continue items to an alternate date holds open the possibility that the commission could set a fourth meeting if a majority of the commission agreed to do so. The commission previously discussed this possibility out of concern that should an agenda item not be completed during the commission’s third meeting of the month, it could be as many as three weeks before the commission meets again, and such delays could cause issues for time-sensitive matters.

Other changes discussed in the interest of time relate to how consent agenda items and executive sessions are handled. Commissioners sometimes pull items from the consent agenda — which then requires public comment on the item and a separate commission vote — so that they can make a brief comment. A memo to the commission states that allowing commissioners to make comments on consent agenda items without pulling them off the agenda is a practice that can be adopted without a change to the resolution.

Regarding executive sessions, the proposed change to the ordinance would allow for meetings to start at 5 p.m. for the purpose of holding an executive session. Currently, executive sessions are held during the regularly allotted meeting time, typically at the end of the commission’s meeting.

Other proposed changes not related to meeting length include the ability to include work session items, or discussion topics that will not be voted on, to any meeting agenda. Currently only the commission’s second monthly meeting includes a work session. Another proposed change would allow the mayor or other commissioner presiding over a meeting to recess the meeting at any time.

The City Commission will convene virtually at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday with limited staff in place at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. The city has asked that residents participate in the meeting virtually if they are able to do so. A link to register for the Zoom meeting and directions to submit written public comment are included in the agenda that is available on the city’s website, lawrenceks.org.