Montgomery meeting change gets mixed reviews

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Updated: October 19, 2011 2:57AM

MONTGOMERY — Village officials may have fewer meetings under a proposed schedule next month, but some trustees think the meetings they do have will become extremely long.

The new schedule will change the past practice of having separate committee meetings for the finance, intergovernmental and development committees. Beginning in September, the items that have traditionally been discussed in separate committee sessions will now be on the agenda for an additional Committee of the Whole Meeting.

“The length of the meeting and the recent practice of canceling meetings without asking the trustees is something I am concerned about,” said Stan Bond, one of the newest trustees on the board.

“There have been three meetings canceled in the past few months, and that decision was made without consulting us,” he said. “It’s our meeting and we should have been the ones to say no. We have stuff to do.”

But Bond said the change is worth a try and he will go into the next few months with an open mind.

“If having fewer meetings at night brings more people to the meetings, then it might be a good idea,” he said.

The new schedule will begin in September, for a three-month trial period.

Longtime Trustee Pete Heinz said he is not in favor of the new meeting plan.

“They say we don’t get the attendance at the morning meetings, but now we will have very long meetings in the evenings,” Heinz said.

New Trustee Matt Brolley said the new meeting schedule should be a good thing.

“People have to go to work, so attending the early morning meetings was difficult,” he said.

Veteran Trustee Denny Lee also said he is in favor of giving the new schedule a try, but Trustee Andy Kaczmarek warned the meetings would definitely be longer.

“It is going to be a longer meeting. We are going to have a long meeting at night and then get up and go to work the next day. It will be difficult,” Kaczmarek said.

The new schedule will consist of having a regular Committee of the Whole meeting on the third Tuesday of the month. Instead of the separate committee meetings, an additional Committee of the Whole meeting will be held on the second Wednesday of the month, in the time slot previously scheduled for finance committee meetings.

The trustees verbally agreed to give the new schedule a try, but will officially put their seal on the trial period at their next meeting.