Clinton aldermen going back to two work sessions per month
By Randy Bell
In a move which mirrors a decision made four years ago, the Clinton Board of Aldermen and Mayor Will Purdie have started holding work sessions before each of the two monthly Board meetings. The work sessions, on the first and third Mondays of each month, offer a chance for the Board to hear updates on upcoming issues and to discuss with the public some of the agenda items to come before the Board at their meetings, which are held on the first and third Tuesdays.
At the start of the previous term, a second work session was added to give new Board members another opportunity to sort through the details of City business, but those often dragged on for hours.
Last year, the Board reverted to one work session per month, after some members argued that a session before the second meeting of the month wasn’t needed.
Last term, Alderman Robert Chapman led the push to cancel the second work session, but he says he now believes two each month could be productive.
“With this Board [with two new members], even though we’re very fresh and we’re all kind of new together, we’re being more efficient with our time,” said Chapman. “So having these two meetings, instead of them going on and on and on and just rehashing the same thing and finding no solutions, since we’re very solution-oriented, having two meetings is not a waste of time.”
As he puts it, “If there’s something we need to work on, that’s our job to do.”
Chapman, now Clinton’s alderman at large, had complained previously that not much was accomplished with a second work session, and his attendance forced him to miss some of his children’s ballgames.
But, with this Board, his attitude has changed.
“Is it eating up another Monday?” he asks. “You can look at it that way, or you can say that this is now a Monday that we’re doing the City’s business and doing it in the most effective manner.” He points out that the first two work sessions of the new term in July “have been very beneficial.”
According to Purdie, that’s the whole idea.
“We’re not going to meet just for the sake of meeting. If there’s a second meeting [scheduled] where there’s nothing really to talk about, it’s possible we’ll cancel it. But, by and large, we’ll be holding them before every Board meeting.”
Something else that’s new: the work sessions are no longer being held in the Phillip R. Fisher Olde Towne Depot, moving instead to the municipal courtroom, the same location where the Board meetings take place.
The work sessions begin at 5:30 p.m. on those designated Mondays, with the Board meetings held on the following Tuesdays at 6 p.m. The work session schedule may vary occasionally because of holidays; and traditionally, only one Board meeting is held in December – on the first Tuesday.
Clinton’s Board of Aldermen meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month for their regular meetings, and holds work sessions on the Mondays before each meeting. All of their meetings take place in the municipal courtroom.
