Lawrence City Commission votes to set 11 p.m. end time for meetings, approves other meeting rule changes

photo by: City of Lawrence

Commissioner Lisa Larsen, Mayor Brad Finkeldei and Vice Mayor Courtney Shipley discuss changes to meeting rules as part of the Lawrence City Commission meeting on March 9, 2021.

The Lawrence City Commission has voted to amend rules governing its meetings in an effort to improve their efficiency and prevent them from running late into the night.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the commission voted 3-0, with commissioners Stuart Boley and Jennifer Ananda absent, to adopt 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. The changes include the addition of an 11 p.m. end time, which can be overruled, where there was no end time before.

Mayor Brad Finkeldei said that while he was not a big fan of how the 11 p.m. end time was set up, the changes had been the consensus of the commission and they were worth a try. Finkeldei said he thought some of the other changes approved, such as those made to how work sessions and the consent agenda work, would also help the commission’s meetings run more smoothly.

“I think these are good changes, and it’s a good step forward,” Finkeldei said.

Finkeldei had previously expressed interest in increasing the commission’s number of meetings per month from three to four as a way to have shorter meetings, but there was not support for that change on the commission. Instead, the commission adopted a format similar to the Planning Commission, in which a meeting end time is established but the commission may vote to extend the meeting. Finkeldei, who was previously a member of the Planning Commission, said his concern with that format was that it could lead to multiple motions to continue.

Commissioner Lisa Larsen and Vice Mayor Courtney Shipley both said they were fine with moving forward with the changes as proposed.

Commission meetings, which are held the first three Tuesdays of the month and begin at 5:45 p.m., regularly run for longer 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 comments, meetings have gone until closer to 1 a.m. The 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 whether items of public interest are accessible to the public if they’re discussed late at night.

The resolution approved Tuesday states that 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 at either the next commission meeting or on a different date determined by the commission.

Other changes the commission approved relate to the rules for work sessions, the consent agenda and executive sessions, and all are intended to help meetings flow more smoothly and potentially shorten them.

One of the changes will allow the commission to include work session items, or discussion topics that will not be voted on, at any meeting instead of only once per month. Another has to do with the consent agenda, a list of several agenda items that are considered and approved in a single motion, typically without discussion. Under the old rules, commissioners and the public could only comment on items on the consent agenda if they were first moved from the consent agenda to the regular agenda, which would require a separate vote by the commission. Now, commissioners and the public will be able to comment on items without removing them from the consent agenda.

A change to the ordinance regarding executive sessions will also allow meetings to start at 5 p.m. for the purpose of holding an executive session.

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