Gosar renews call for changing meeting times

During the 2018 electoral campaign, Gosar made those meeting times a hot topic.

He urged the county to host meetings in the evening to allow more members of the public to attend.

Shortly after Christmas and ahead of Gosar taking office, the commissioners distributed a survey.

Of the 226 respondents who expressed an opinion about the time of day meetings are hosted, 46 percent said they preferred meetings to continue being hosted at 9 a.m. Forty-six percent said they want meetings changed to begin at 5 p.m.

In response to that result, Gosar said the county should try hosting half of its meetings in the evening.

“There’s no doubt I feel strongly about this,” Gosar said. “I was very forthcoming during the election about that. There’s a reason that the city council and school board have their meetings in the evening.”

During the campaign, Commissioner Heber Richardson said it would cost the county more to host meetings during the evening. Employees who are required to be at commission meetings would need to be paid overtime, he said.

Gosar suggested Tuesday “there are flexible ways for department heads to structure their work” to prevent that.

And while most audience members at commission meetings usually have business coming before the board, Gosar said local residents might become more interested in the proceedings if the county better publicized its work.

“I think a lot of people don’t really understand how this impacts their life,” he said.

Typically, commissioners pass a resolution in January setting meeting times for the year.

The board delayed passing that resolution Tuesday as part of the discussions. Albany County Attorney Peggy Trent said the discussion on meeting times should continue during the work session that was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

However, that work session was ultimately reschedule for February after an unusually long executive session with Sheriff Dave O’Malley — which began shortly after noon — stretched for hours.

Joel Defenbaugh, an attorney in Trent’s office, presented the results of the survey Tuesday.

“I think it’s important to always look at the status quo and see what people think of it,” he said.

Of those who said they were opposed to change the meeting times, many expressed that “any time it’s not business hours, it’s time for family,” Defenbaugh said.

Those who wanted the times moved to evening expressed the same concerns Gosar has raised about public access.

Survey respondents said many of those concerns about public access could be addressed by better use of technology, Defenbaugh said.

Respondents suggested meetings should be live-streamed and board packets and agendas should be uploaded to the website in a timely manner.

Acknowledging some of those shortcomings, Trent said there’s work being done now to ensure board materials are available on the website.

On Tuesday, Commissioner Terri Jones was voted by Richardson and Gosar as the new chair of the county board. Richardson became vice chair after a nomination by Gosar.