For those of you keeping score on the City Council’s efforts to speed up its twice-monthly meetings, well, the home team took a beating Monday night.
City Manager Eric Williams estimated a total meeting time of 77 minutes, not counting people who signed up to talk for three minutes each during the public comment period (there were three speakers), Mayor Clem Seifert’s opening remarks (they lasted about two minutes) and a report from the special committee working on the city manager’s performance appraisal (it may have stretched to 10 minutes).
Add it up, and the meeting should have lasted about 98 minutes — short enough for everyone to get home, grab a snack and a cold beverage, and settle in for at least the second half-hour of “24.” (Will Chloe and Edgar ever realize they were born to spend their lives together in socially dysfunctional techno-geek bliss?)
Well, “to make a long story short,” as the Rev. C.J. Dale had time to say twice after the council voted to extend his three-minute comment period to eight minutes, the council missed Williams’ target by this much.
We clocked the meeting at 171 minutes, more than an hour past the target ending. And the council then met behind closed doors for more than half an hour. The 11 o’clock news was on TV before the council members left the Municipal Building.
Better luck next time. We mean it. After all, the two-hour “24” season finale falls on the night of the next council meeting.