Everett council OKs night meetings

Published 9:47 pm Wednesday, January 7, 2009

EVERETT — At least now, Everett City Council members can sleep late most meeting days.

That’s because the council decided to move three of its four monthly meetings from morning to night. It’s an experiment aimed to allow more people to attend meetings and also attract a wider range of candidates.

The switch takes effect Jan. 21. Meetings are to begin at 6:30 p.m.

“I think we are much more accessible to the citizens when we meet at night,” said City Councilman Drew Nielsen.

The move came as a surprise to some council members when Nielsen forced a vote on the issue at Wednesday morning’s meeting. Councilman Ron Gipson disliked the proposal and said it was out of order. New City Council President Arlan Hatloe, presiding over his first meeting in the role, asked Nielsen to withdraw the motion.

The council did vote 4-3 in favor of holding the night meetings. Councilman Shannon Affholter joined Gipson and Hatloe in opposing the measure.

The council has dabbled with night meetings for a while.

Already, the council holds one night meeting a month, but the other three weekly meetings have been held at 8:30 a.m. The council also holds night meetings for issues that they consider will draw wide attention.

In 2003, the council temporarily decided to hold two of its four meetings at night. The council went back to morning meetings a few months later after deciding it was inconvenient for employees and did not result in a discernible change in the number of people attending meetings.

“It’s kind of a foolish venture and it’s already been tried,” Hatloe said.

While costs of night meetings are not known, the practice is common elsewhere around Snohomish County. Every other city council holds regular meetings at night.

As council president, Hatloe had the authority to rule Nielsen’s motion out of order, subject to an appeal by the council. He chose not to do that.

Councilman Paul Roberts, who worked for two decades as a planning director in Everett and public works director in Marysville, said night meetings are manageable. He said that city department managers and city consultants need to attend meetings, but it’s such a standard practice elsewhere that they know it comes with the territory.

Nielsen argued that moving meetings to nights would likely broaden the pool of candidates who can run to serve on the part-time council — which now has a schedule that favors retirees, homemakers and self-employed professionals over typical workers.

“Our first job is to our citizens,” Nielsen said. “We don’t really work to serve our department heads.”

The city broadcasts meetings live on its government access Channel 21 in Everett and then replays them throughout the week.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.