Council meetings continue Tuesday despite historic election

In case you missed it, here is the Leftover's column. We were able to confirm after it was published, however, that El Monte also cancelled their City Council meeting on Election Day.

Leftovers Column: Spending Election Night at City Hall
By Jennifer McLain and Tania Chatila, Staff Writers
Article Launched: 11/02/2008 10:58:06 PM PST

Election Night stands as a keystone of our democracy.

If you buy the rhetoric of the past several months, this election may very well be the most important of our lives.

Like so many others who care about politics, we had plans Tuesday night.

Those plans included following election coverage, calling polling places and watching for the final results.

Unfortunately those plans took a back seat for some of us, who found out we wouldn't be spending the night covering the election - we would, instead, be covering meetings at city halls.

Diamond Bar, Arcadia and Norwalk are just some the local cities holding council meetings Tuesday.

At least they decided to keep their agendas relatively light.

The same can't be said for West Covina, which is starting off its night Tuesday with a special meeting at 5:45 p.m. to discuss personnel matters, such as the hiring of a deputy city manager and the evaluation of the city manger.

It doesn't stop there.

At 7 p.m. the City Council will convene for its regular meeting, and a loaded agenda with public hearings about overnight parking permits and updating the city's towing services contract.

We understand that cities have important business. But why cancel a meeting at the end of October, like West Covina did, when officials could have opted instead to cancel a meeting on a day that is more American to some of us than baseball?

Sure, the polls open early and don't close until 8 p.m. It's possible residents could cast their votes early on in the day, and make it to their City Council meetings by nightfall if they wanted.

What about those who won't be able to get to the polls until after work? And how about the residents who will likely have their eyes glued to the TV set once all the votes are cast.

Unlike West Covina, other cities, like Covina, cancelled their regularly scheduled election night meetings - so residents don't have to choose. Covina moved its meeting to Nov. 18.

For the cities that didn't, maybe there was some optimism that less people would show up to for a meeting that's competing with a big national news story.

Then again, officials might have been looking to restore faith in the democratic process - using a national election to inspire more residents to take part in local politics.