City Council Meetings Shift to Night Hours : Glendale: Effective today, regular time is pushed back from 2 to 6 p.m. Members say they believe the change will improve public access.

In a move that might have caused a political stir just a few years ago, the Glendale City Council today begins holding its weekly meetings at night, and council members are promising the public better access to local government.

Public reaction to the move so far has been one of indifference, but council members say it is a significant change that will put an end to accusations that the city tailors its schedule to business people, but not to working people.

“The Glendale council has always held its meetings in the afternoon, but times are different now,” said Councilwoman Eileen Givens. “It’s become extremely difficult for the majority of working people who might want to speak to the council to do so. Most cities across the state have evening meetings, so we’re not exactly on the cutting edge here. It’s just time we made the change.”

Under the new schedule, approved unanimously by the council last month, the meetings will be moved from 2 o’clock Tuesday afternoon to 6 p.m. Meetings of the redevelopment agency, previously held at 1:30, will be at 4:30, and study sessions and other special meetings will be scheduled earlier in the day.

A survey conducted by the city manager’s office of 12 Southland cities comparable to Glendale found that 10 of the cities hold their council meetings at night.

Activists, including several challengers in the 1989 council election, have occasionally urged the council in recent years to follow the example of other cities, including Burbank, which switched to an evening schedule in the late 1980s.

But until a new majority was elected to the council in 1993, the idea was met with little enthusiasm.

“I always felt it wasn’t necessary to have night meetings every week,” said Ginger Bremberg, a former three-term councilwoman who left office in 1993.

“Any time there was a major hearing of any shape or form, we always held it at night to accommodate the people who were affected. But for the ordinary, day-to-day business, the afternoon meetings were fine.”

Although there are about five to 10 seniors and gadflies who diligently attend the weekly council meetings, the audience is typically sparse. Givens and other council members say they do not expect attendance to skyrocket, but they contend that night meetings, along with the recent initiation of cablecasting of the meetings, makes the Glendale council more accessible.

But John K. Beach, a gadfly who has attended council meetings for five years, believes that if public participation doesn’t increase, then night meetings should be abandoned.

“People are always saying, ‘Let’s have night meetings, so we can attend.’ But talk is cheap. Let’s see if they show up, and if they don’t let’s go back to the way it was,” Beach said.