Burbank Council meetings to start a half-hour early, end by 11 p.m.
Meanwhile in beautiful downtown Burbank, City Council meetings could start at 6 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m., and it'll require a majority vote for discussion to go past 11 p.m., according to the Leader.
This in a town where meetings often run past midnight (I personally have stayed till 2:30 a.m. during that Whole Foods in the Rancho flap a couple months ago). It was a 4-1 vote to introduce the changes last week, which also includes combining into one the two seperate public comment periods.
Councilman David Gordon -- that beacon of contratrian freedom and targeted populism who is still fighting the good fight despite backing the losing horses in the council race earlier this year -- dissented. He wanted the start time kept at 6:30 p.m. to accomodate people's work schedules.
If I were conspiracy minded, I would read this as just another erosion of our right to free speech in the name of efficiency, while limiting City Hall accountibility to the public; an overall affront to civil discourse and democracy, the very foundations of our system of government....
But I'm not. I guess we'll see how it all works out, but it won't be happening tomorrow -- the council's dark this Tuesday, 8/7.