Cleveland City Council plans time change for meetings

CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- For anyone with business before the Cleveland City Council in 2012, a glance at the clock may be in order.

The council has taken a step to change its meeting time.

The council decided to change its official meeting time from 4 to 3 p.m. and had the first reading of the ordinance change at its December meeting. A second, final reading and vote will be Jan. 23.

The meeting day is not changing.

"We are not taking any action on the [council's] work session because that's not required by ordinance," said Mayor Tom Rowland. "After the first of the year, the council can vote on changing that time or leaving it like it is."

The council now meets at 2 p.m. for a work session on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. During those sessions, the council usually conducts public hearings and debates items to be voted on at the 4 p.m. session.

Sometimes those 2 p.m. sessions last until 4 p.m. That happened recently when residents wanted to discuss the results of city flooding and what could be done about it.

In those instances, Rowland simply adjourns the informal session, declares the formal session open and the talks go on.

But often there is little, or only routine, business at the 2 p.m. session, leaving the council and anyone attending with more than an hour of nothing to do but wait.

Some council members have said the break gives city staff members time to research any questions raised at the 2 p.m. session or to write resolutions for a 4 p.m. vote.