The Oneonta Common Council may be consolidating its committee meetings.
Council members discussed the possibility of bringing its many committees, composed of smaller groups of the whole body, into one committee of the whole structure at the council’s Tuesday, June 2 meeting.
One idea that gained traction was adding two meetings per month for the whole council to address committee-level matters. These meetings would be held on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. The council currently meets on the first and third Tuesday of the month.
“I’d like to throw it out there that instead of having all of these individual committee structures that we have a commitment to come here every Tuesday and discuss these items at large as a council,” Len Carson, R-Fifth Ward. He credited Kaytee Lipari Shue, D-Fourth Ward, with raising the idea in the past.
Currently, the Common Council has six active committees, ranging from Quality of Life and Infrastructure to Legislative to Budget Review. They are composed of a few of the council’s eight members apiece and maintain separate meeting times. After review by the committee, agenda items are sent to the whole body for discussion and action.
Don Mathisen, D-Eighth Ward, said he had discussed the idea with Scott Harrington, R-Sixth Ward, recently and felt “it’s an excellent thing to try.”
City Attorney David Merzig said that when he started, meetings were run in a fashion similar to the method being proposed, and that council meetings “regularly went to midnight” at the time.
The idea for committee meetings was to ensure items and proposals would reach the full council after they had been hashed out.
“But if that’s not going to be the most efficient route for everybody on the council to answer the questions, then what you’re suggesting makes more sense,” Merzig said.
Shannon McHugh, D-Third Ward, said she would like the ability to “hear everybody’s stuff and participate before it gets” to the regular meeting.
“The only thing is, we have had five, six hour meetings, and I’m highly concerned with that,” McHugh said, adding she would want clear boundaries.
Mayor Dan Buttermann echoed those concerns. He cited his experience on the Oneonta City School District Board of Education, which he said attempted a similar meeting structure at the time and reverted to the old system after a few months.
“It lost the focus almost immediately,” he said.
Harrington suggested putting an 8 p.m. time limit on the meetings.
Lipari Shue said a change would enable better public participation.
“As hard as it is for us to juggle when committees are meeting, it’s 10 times harder for community members who aren’t participating and required to be there,” she said.
Buttermann, who expressed openness to the change if it included rules, suggested sitting on the idea for now.
“As my wife would say sometimes: ‘consult a pillow,’” he said.