Marion City Council considers changing meeting schedule

MARION — The Marion City Council is considering changing its meeting schedule, though most council members seem to prefer the current arrangement.

Currently, the council has four meetings per month. It meets for work sessions on the first and third Tuesdays of each month and for formal sessions on Thursdays in the same weeks.

City Manager Ryan Waller and city staff are recommending keeping the two-days-per-week format or changing to a schedule similar to Iowa City’s, where the council holds both meetings on a Tuesday, with the work session at 4 p.m. and the formal session at 6 p.m.

Staff also recommended reformatting the current work session to only include presentations or discussions for future agenda items as well as including a time for questions about that week’s regular session agenda.

“During one of my check-ins with folks, the question came up to look at the city council meeting schedule and while planning out the 2023 calendar year, we thought this would be a good opportunity to bring this forward to council,” Waller said. “When staff contemplated this, we did like the fact that we have the Tuesday meeting that allows us to make Thursday more efficient.”

Council reaction

The council members who spoke at Tuesday’s work session preferred keeping the schedule in its current form.

“Having the Tuesday meeting and then voting on Thursday allows you even more time for any research,” council member Steve Jensen said. “I’m OK as it is. I’m not sure I’m seeing a huge benefit in changing it.”

“We need to serve our constituency but also propel staff to be more effective and optimized,” council member Grant Harper added. “But I can’t conjure up in my own mind why we would do anything different.”

Mayor Nick AbouAssaly said the current format works well because while he sees the Thursday formal meeting as a session for the public, the Tuesday work session is a time for council and staff to communicate and ask questions. The days between the two meetings provide time to think about items on the agenda.

Most council members said they want to avoid one long meeting on Tuesdays.

“I like the idea of having items presented several weeks in advance to let us know things are coming down the road,” he said. “I personally don’t want to take away the opportunity to go through the agenda and ask questions.”

Council member Colette Atkins put forth a separate idea, suggesting the work session — which now starts at 4 p.m. — be scheduled later in the day.

“We should be thinking about how we get more people involved, and that 4 p.m. start time is hard,” she said. “We should be creating an environment that is encouraging for people to get involved.”

“It seems we want to keep the schedule to Tuesdays and Thursdays and rework the Tuesday format,” she added. “So maybe we give it a shot now with how it is now with the changes to Tuesday and give it some months and maybe later, we change the Tuesday start time.”

Waller said he and his staff will work on the changes — scheduling presentations and discussions about items on future weeks’ agendas. After several months, they’ll return to discussion about the format to evaluate how it’s working for council members.

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