Council members say it would reduce the workload for staff, and enable them to address amended agendas in a timely manner.
By Olivia Damavandi / Assistant Editor
The Malibu City Council at its meeting Monday night will consider adopting an ordinance to hold its regular meetings on Tuesdays instead of Monday evenings.
City officials say that modifying the regular meeting schedule would allow staff an additional business day to prepare for city council meetings and provide the public additional time to contact staff or council members to discuss agenda items.
However, the proposed ordinance is heavily opposed by the publishers of local newspapers The Malibu Times and Malibu Surfside News, both of which go to print on Tuesday nights. They argue that it would hinder timely news coverage.
“I think the ordinance would make it very difficult for the press to cover city council meetings,” The Malibu Times Publisher Arnold York said in an interview Tuesday. “Both papers go to print on Tuesday nights. I can see absolutely no reason to do this. To say it’s done for the convenience of the staff is nonsense.”
A staff report states that “due to reduced staffing on Fridays, conducting city council meetings on Tuesdays rather than Mondays would assist in balancing the work load.” The report does not include alternatives or suggestions for mitigating the reduced staffing, and does not detail the reason for it.
“Many staff members don’t work on Fridays and it’s been a real problem,” Mayor Andy Stern said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “When we moved the Planning Commission meetings to Tuesdays, the staff liked it.”
The council held its last Tuesday meeting on Sept. 29, which “made it so much more efficient and easy for staff,” Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Barovsky said Tuesday in a telephone interview. Barovsky explained that city staff is on a “flex schedule,” meaning they work overtime during the week with the option of taking Mondays or Fridays off.
“Let’s say a staff member has a flex day on Friday and she comes on Monday and there has to be an amendment to the [city council meeting] agenda,” Barovsky said. “It’s backbreaking for her, and sometimes planners have to get amendments into the agenda. Although I know it makes it harder for [local newspapers], it makes it a lot easier for people at city hall. The main complaint is that agendas, especially amended agendas, are sometimes rushed and not as complete as they could be.”
Calls made to City Manager Jim Thorsen were not returned.
Despite the city’s claims, some critics perceive the city is using the proposed ordinance to delay coverage of weekly news that could result in unfavorable public opinion.
Malibu Surfside News last week reported unconfirmed rumors that former councilmember Joan House “is considering another city council run” and that “observers express concern that insider politics and council candidacies might override the problem a change of day would create for Malibu media deadlines.”
Surfside Publisher Ann Soble declined comment for this story on Tuesday. But Barovsky called the report “an insane argument, especially in this day age when people can watch us live on TV. I check The Malibu Times Web site at least once a day to see what’s going on. This is not 20 years ago. This is about what’s the best decision for staff.”
Mayor Stern said, “It’s laughable for anyone to say we are disdainful of media coverage when we are all completely accessible and have all meetings on the Internet. It’s surprising that someone could be so utterly incorrect in their thought process on the subject.”
City council meetings were first held on Tuesdays when Malibu achieved cityhood in 1991, but were changed to Mondays after local press advocated the importance of punctual news coverage.
“When we became a city, the meetings were on Tuesdays, but were changed to Mondays because of the newspapers and everyone agreed,” Barovsky said. “But that was before we had e-mails and Internet.”