Council Finds Time to Limit Late-Hour Votes : City Hall: Officials hope starting meetings a half-hour earlier will prevent fatigue from influencing policy.

The Ventura City Council, weary of making important decisions in a sleepy haze, agreed Monday to begin their meetings a half-hour earlier so they would cast fewer votes late at night.

Council members said they could improve democracy and clear up the city staff’s bleary eyes on Tuesday morning by preventing their weekly meetings from running late into the night.

At a workshop Monday evening, the council members decided to start their meetings at 7 p.m. instead of the usual 7:30, and to ask city staff to keep their oral reports to less than three minutes. Six of the seven council members also got a short lesson in parliamentary procedure, which they promised to observe. Councilman Greg Carson was absent from the meeting.

The council members stopped short of changing the meeting time to 5:30 p.m., accommodating Councilman Jim Monahan, who said he liked to “go home, take a shower, and eat dinner” before council meetings, and Councilman Gary Tuttle, who also said he preferred eating dinner at home with his wife.

Before the time change can be implemented, the council must bring it up as a resolution for an official vote at an upcoming council meeting.

Council members conceded that their own long-windedness is sometimes the reason for meetings dragging on into the night, but warned that burning the midnight oil can be dangerous.

“I don’t think anyone is thinking very clearly at 1 o’clock in the morning,” said Councilman Steve Bennett, who proposed starting the meetings at 5:30 p.m. “We’ve all been sort of punch-drunk.”

Bennett said that if the meetings started earlier, more of the public would be able to observe the council and contribute their opinions.

Several members contended their high energy levels made it easy for them to wake up early on Tuesday mornings after late-night meetings. “I have high energy and am accustomed to working long hours,” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said.

City staff, however, readily acknowledged that the late-night meetings take a physical toll.

“It is difficult when meetings run late . . . being expected to be in and at work the next day,” Community Services Director Everett Millais said. “Everybody is tired.”

Opinions differed on the causes of late nights and long meetings.

“A lot of times they take as long as they do because we have a lot of work to do,” Mayor Tom Buford said.

Councilman Gary R. Tuttle was less charitable. “Sometimes council members have a tendency to talk way too much,” he said. “Some council members waste our time with stupid questions.”

Yet Tuttle said he feared that the effort to quicken the meetings might end up stifling debate and public participation. “We’re trying to get too businesslike,” he said.

Jack Biller, who attends council meetings regularly, also worried that ending the meetings earlier would entail limiting public participation. “If they’re going to shut the public off more than they’re shut off already, then that’s real bad,” Biller said.

At Monday’s workshop, several council members raised concerns about limiting public debate. For that reason, they rejected a proposal to establish a set adjournment time for council meetings. They also agreed to allow the public time to comment at the start of council meetings held on the first Monday of each month. Normally, public comments are scheduled at the end of the meeting.

Ironically, the move to end meetings earlier may make them longer. If the meetings start earlier, at least one councilman expects the rhetoric to expand to fill the newly available time.

“The council members will never limit themselves. They’ll always have the last word,” Tuttle said.