By Amanda Raymond

amanda.raymond@salisburypost.com

The Salisbury City Council has decided to start future meetings an hour later.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the council discussed changing the time of meetings to accommodate citizens who do not get off from work until later in the evening.

The council decided to start meetings at 5 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. The change would take effect on March 1.

The council also moved to have a public comment session at every meeting at approximately 6 p.m. or at the end of the meeting, whichever comes first.

At a meeting in December, when the issue was first brought up, Mayor Pro-tem Maggie Blackwell said that when the council had previously asked citizens if they would like to change the meeting times, no one responded.

This time, the council members did get responses from citizens.

Councilman David Post said he received several hundred comments on social media.

“I’d say it’s been 99 percent for and 1 percent agnostic; didn’t have anybody against it,” Post said.

Post said most people suggested starting at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m.

Councilman Kenny Hardin said he had seven people email him about changing the meeting times, but they suggested changing it to 5 p.m. He also said about 20-25 people responded on Facebook in favor of changing the time. Hardin said no one was against changing the time.

Hardin said he was in favor of a later meeting time.

“I’m definitely in favor of increasing participation, increasing civic participation,” Hardin said.

Blackwell said she also received three emails regarding the topic.

Councilman Brian Miller said he had no strong opinion either way.

“I’m agnostic about it. I’ll be here when you tell me the meeting time starts,” he said.

Miller did say he would rather the meetings not start at 7 p.m. because he was worried that the council’s mental capacities would not be as sharp if the meetings ran late into the night.

As far as public comment, Miller said he would rather it be at a set time rather than at the beginning of the meetings.

“I don’t really like the idea of having public comment at the beginning, just because there are items that are easy things, consensus items, that we can clear off the agenda and move forward to something else,” he said.

City Manager Lane Bailey said having a set time for the public comment period might disrupt the flow of the meeting. He suggested keeping it at the end of the meeting, but having the freedom to move it to the beginning if a lot of people show up wanting to speak.

Mayor Karen Alexander agreed.

“I really like that flexibility. I think it’s very respectful to the public to do that,” she said.

But Post said someone might have a comment about an agenda item that might not be heard until the end of the meeting.

In the end, Post made a motion to move the meeting start time to 5 p.m. starting with the meeting on March 1. The motion passed unanimously.

Post made a separate motion to have the public comment portion at approximately 6 p.m. or at the end of the meeting, whichever came first, which also passed unanimously. The council acknowledged that if they are in the middle of discussing an agenda item when 6 p.m rolls around, they will finish the discussion and start the public comment session afterwards.

In other business, the council approved:

• Adopting a resolution to accept an offer of dedication for Highland Avenue, while also adopting an order to close a portion of Highland Avenue subject to the existing right-of-way being maintained as a utility easement.
• Establishing a 30-day period of public input for the renaming of Lincoln Pool to the Fred M. Evans Pool at Lincoln Park.
• Adopting an ordinance restricting vehicle traffic on a portion of Hogan’s Alley.

Contact reporter Amanda Raymond at 704-797-4222.