City Council Decides Against Changing Meeting Time

The Redondo Beach City Council on Tuesday night decided against starting the open sessions of city council meetings a half-hour earlier—a plan initially floated by new Mayor Steve Aspel in an attempt to get council meetings to end earlier.

"You get criticized making these major decisions late at night," Aspel told the rest of the council. The proposal drafted by the city attorney's office called for meetings to start at 5:30 p.m. instead of the current 6 p.m. "It will help the staff have a life again to try to move the meeting up … a little bit earlier to get out of here earlier."

Though some members of the council indicated they would be amenable to the change, Councilman Matt Kilroy, who represents the 5th District in North Redondo Beach and teaches at Adams Middle School, said he would be unable the closed sessions of meetings if open session started that early. Closed session is generally held before the open session begins.

"The very few times that we have actually had a meeting go past midnight has been as much of a function of how we've agendized a meeting," Kilroy pointed out.

Additionally, Councilman Bill Brand said that starting the meetings at 5:30 p.m. could discourage public participation because people may still be getting off work.

"The meetings are really supposed to be for the public, and not only do I think it would hurt the public's ability to participate … but also hurts people who'd like to sit up here and be on the council," he said. "They look at their work schedule, and say, 'I have a job.'"

Nevertheless, Brand did say that he was "all for doing everything (Aspel) can to get us out at 10 o'clock."

The council did eventually decide to start the closed sessions earlier in the evening, provided they were given sufficient notice. According to City Attorney Mike Webb, a resolution is not required to change the start time of closed sessions. Instead, the time change can be noted on the meeting's agenda, which must be published 72 hours before the meeting.

"My ultimate goal is to spend more time being able to comprehend closed session (items)," Aspel said.

The city council has regularly scheduled meetings on the first, second and third Tuesdays of the month. Previously reserved primarily for closed session items, the second Tuesday meeting is now either full or canceled.