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Council will meet at 6 p.m. when Spring roils around
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Manteca City Council meetings will start an hour earlier at 6 p.m. when Spring rolls around.

And if Councilman Charlie Halford has his druthers, public comment for items not on the agenda will be pushed to the end of the meeting.

The council last month put in motion an ordinance change on meeting times for regularly scheduled meeting.

It will go from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m., on Tuesday, March 21 — the first day of Spring.

It marks the first departure from a 7 p.m. start time in at least three decades.

Halford made the request to consider shifting public comments just before the council unanimously agreed to change the start time.

Halford’s idea, based on the track record of city council meetings over the past three decades, would avoid several concerns.

*It would avoid organized efforts to “hijack the meeting.”

Over a 15-mnonth period starting 20 years ago, opponents of a plan for the Big League Dreams sports complex being built at Woodward Park routinely used an extensive wave of speakers that ate up between 20 and 90 minutes of the start of meetings when the BLD project wasn’t on the agenda.

That forced people who wanted to speak on agenda items impacting their neighborhoods and Manteca in general often to  give up and go home due to the late start of the council’s business portion of the agendas.

*It would avoid those from the public that have invested considerable time and effort on an agenda item — whether it is a community-based group or a developer — to be forced to wait for their item to be heard given comments and discussions on non-agenda concerns are essentially given de facto priority.

*It would keep everyone sharper in making and listening to comments and — by extension — create conditions for better decision making a critical city business scheduled to be addressed at the meeting would be heard earlier in the night.

Halford noted with the earlier start time, it would become more difficult for commuters to bring up concerns that aren’t on the agenda

Historically most people that comment at council meetings that aren’t speaking up during public hearings on development related projects do so during public comments.

Regular scheduled meetings 25 years ago were moved from Monday to Tuesday.

At that time, a 6 p.m. start time was considered but rejected. There was a concern that an earlier time would make it difficult for many that are part of Manteca’s large commuter base that wanted to attend a meeting but couldn’t do so with a 6 p.m. start.

The widespread use of Zoom hastened by the pandemic has created a large pool of residents that are able to interact with the council during meetings through citizens comments as well as to participate in public hearings.

In addition, the city’s ability to livestream meetings on its website to  various devices from smartphones and tablets to desktop computers has made access for viewing more universally available than simply being accessed via Comcast Channel 97 that requires one to subscribe to the cable service.

In a staff report prepared by City Attorney Dave Nefouse, it was noted, “with the ability of members of the public to participate in City Council meetings and because several city council meetings go late into the evening (when less residents are awake), starting meetings at 6 p. pm will not only allow the City conduct its business at a more convenient time for its residents, but also assist City staff who attend and/or participate at the meetings.”

  

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com