26 Feb Richmond Could Push Up City Council Meeting Start Times

The Richmond City Council on Tuesday discussed the possibility of starting its regular meetings an hour earlier. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Richmond City Council meetings could soon start an hour earlier, at least temporarily.

One council member said the decision to make meetings earlier was made “all over email only.” That has something to do with a state transparency law, the city attorney said. 

“So, over email,” vice mayor Cesar Zepeda said at Tuesday’s meeting, “we gave direction to [City Clerk Pamela] Christian to say we all can show up earlier.” 

The change — moving the open session start time from 6:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and closed session start from 4:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. — later showed up on the city manager’s Feb. 18 report, but there “wasn’t anything on the agenda,” Zepeda said, “technically.” 

“There’s a thing called the Brown Act,” City Attorney Dave Aleshire said, referring to the California law that looks to increase government transparency by ensuring public business is conducted openly. 

That includes limits on communications, such as emails, between elected officials on the same body. 

The law prohibits “any use of direct communication, personal intermediaries or technological devices that is employed by a majority … to develop a collective concurrence as to action to be taken.”

Aleshire, who was not at the Feb. 18 meeting where the change was announced, did not explain his Brown Act comment further but said that’s “why [he goes] to the meetings.” 

Christian said she’d take the conversation on the change with Aleshire “offline.” 

When meeting times are set by an ordinance, according to Aleshire, that establishes the regular meeting time. A regular meeting requires a notice of at least 72 hours under the Brown Act. 

No official change means the March 4 meeting, which was set to be the start of a six-month trial period of earlier meetings, would need to be a special meeting to start at the 3:30 p.m. closed session time. 

The trial period means meetings can go back to the 6:30 p.m. open session start time if the proposed start time is unsuccessful. 

Council members Soheila Bana, Jamelia Brown, Doria Robinson and Sue Wilson on Tuesday were generally supportive of an earlier start time, with some citing concerns with staff morale and retention with regular later meetings and wanting to increase public participation. 

“I’m interested in making the work life of city employees something that is sustainable,” Mayor Eduardo Martinez said. “This is only an experiment. What we want to do is collect the data of who shows up with time change and compare it with the data of who showed up when it was 6:30 p.m.” 

Resident Don Gosney, who also spoke against the change at last week’s meeting, said the proposed 5 p.m. start time was when many were only getting off work. 

“Why do you want to take the people out of the process?” Gosney asked. “Why would you undertake this drastic action behind closed doors without the input from the public?” 

Without any data on who works a 9 to 5 work schedule, Wilson said, she favored the 5 p.m. start time because she was concerned “about people who are missing the meeting because it goes until midnight.” 

Robinson also pushed back on one of Gosney’s comments — in which he said some of the council members’ constituents were either “unemployed or unemployable” — for being “offensive” and “disgusting.” 

“I don’t care what political persuasion you are. You are not going to come in here and disparage thousands of people, hardworking people who are struggling to make their bills and pay for their housing and get their kids raised,” Robinson said. 

Zepeda, who brought the item forward this week, said his goal was to get input from community members and council members on the start times. 

“I think it’s important to listen and hear our discussion, make it more public because it was just done over email,” he said. 

Zepeda’s suggestion to instead have an open session start time of 5:30 p.m. was unsuccessful. 

Council member Jamelia Brown, who supported an earlier start time, said being more efficient in meetings would help decrease the length of meetings. 

“If this meeting is anything goes,” Brown said, “we’ll still be here until 10:30 p.m. regardless if we start two hours early.” 

If council members vote to make the changes at the next meeting, meetings would also have a set end time of 11 p.m. 

The next Richmond City Council meeting is on March 4.