Should Merced City Council meetings have a fixed end time? Issue comes before leaders

Anyone who has regularly attended Merced City Council meetings knows they can go late.

How late, you may ask?

On some nights, you just might catch the end of “The Tonight Show,” if you’re lucky. Other nights, you might be better off watching those meetings remotely, if you want to be home by your kids’ bedtime.

With the understanding that not everyone who attends a City Council meeting is a die-hard night owl, leaders this week considered whether there should be a time cap on when those meetings end.

The item came at the suggestion of District 6 Councilmember Delray Shelton, with the aim allowing the public to speak on agenda items, without letting meetings run excessively late.

On some previous occasions, meetings have even gone past midnight. “These lengthy and marathon council meetings is a bit, right?” said Shelton. “We want people to be engaged and be involved. Decent hours is decent hours.”

Despite the discussion, ultimately the majority of the council voted to not move forward on a time cap. Shelton abstained from the vote, while District 4 Councilman Kevin Blake was absent.

The item was also discussed because city employees who have to attend those meetings in their entirety must work 8 a.m. the next morning.

While District 4 Councilmember Fernando Echevarria empathized with city staff having to wake up early, he said that’s part of the job, even for some council members.

“I got to be up at 4:30 (a.m.) tomorrow,” Echevarria added. “It’s just a part of the territory.”

Other possibilities discussed

Various suggestions for making the meetings shorter included moving some agenda items up, in order to allow members of the community to speak about them earlier — or carrying over agenda items until the next meeting.

Another solution included allowing residents to call before the meeting to leave a three-minute voicemail, talking about an issue they want to speak about, so they don’t have to stay late to speak.

Voicemails left on the City Council answering machine that are currently played during public comment can only be one minute, according to Mayor Matthew Serratto.

“I’m not against moving items up in the agenda,” said Echevarria. “But only the strong survive, in a sense. I feel like if we have to be here until 1 o’clock, we’ll be here until 1 o’clock.”

While not all council members were against moving discussion of certain topics earlier in the meeting, some voiced concern it would pose problems about who gets priority.

“How are we going to decide who the preferential treatment is going to be for?” asked District 3 Councilmember Bertha Perez.

“We’re just opening up a can of worms. It’s going to lead to some people being treated special and it’s just going to become chaotic.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM.