Council Should Consider Time Management on Agenda

County Council Needs to Add Shorter Meetings to Bloated Agendas

Not long ago, I wrote a column suggesting that overly long Anderson County Council meetings were not in the best interest of local government. County Council Chairman Francis Crowder, Councilmen Tom Allen, Tommy Dunn and Ken Walker all agreed with my assessment, saying that the time had come to reign in overly long council meetings. Last night Councilwoman Gracie Floyd joined the chorus, but saying council needs to act on keeping meetings shorter. 

Greg Wilson, Editor/PublisherThen came Tuesday night’s 5.5 hour meeting, which took longer than a drive to Myrtle Beach. It was an agenda-heavy marathon that on the best night included far too many complex ordinances and resolutions for a single public council meeting. With storm water compliance reports (and attempts at much-needed compliance clarification) from DHEC, the annual audit report, the annual report from the Appalachian Council of Governments and a pair of contested zoning change proposals making up less than a quarter of the agenda, whoever is charged with making sure agendas contain the appropriate amount of content for a single council meeting must have been as drowsy as those still around at the end of Tuesday night’s meeting.

A representative from a company bringing 250 new jobs and a $22 million investment to the county sat patiently in his hard, uncomfortable, wooden seat with the rest of us until 11:40 p.m., and difficult as it might be to comprehend, the meeting would have lasted well past midnight had council not voted to conclude most of the rest of the business on the agenda at a special called meeting next week. 

Time management is key. Volatile issues such as zoning changes which include public hearings, should be treated as potentially substantial blocks of time and council meeting agendas adjusted accordingly. Citizen participation in such issues, which was spectacular Tuesday night, should not be relegated to a time slot leading well past 11 p.m. Tuesday night’s agenda, which can be viewed here, was clearly too much business for a single session of local government.

Long meetings are difficult for everyone. Guests, such as the business representative, the team for DHEC which drove up from Columbia; citizens who like to be active in local government; county employees required to attend the meetings; and council members themselves, who are at risk of making less than stellar decisions as the night wears on and when the agenda is overstuffed. 

In addition to the need for someone to become the county council champion of making sure meetings have a reasonably sized agenda, again it is time to revisit the idea of not using regular council meetings for honors and awards. A special quarterly meeting paying homage to Anderson’s brightest and best would better serve those receiving the awards and council. Such a meeting would allow more time to honor these people and for photos with the council members, instead of wedging them into the front end of a regular county council meeting. 

Shorter meetings would also attract more community leaders, busy men and women who would be far more likely to attend meetings if they knew there would be home before 8 p.m. 

Council members pledging to read all materials and discussing any agenda questions/issues among themselves in the days before Tuesday night meetings - the agenda is available on Fridays - would also do wonders to keep meetings shorter and more effective. Communication between council members leading up to the meetings might also lead to more effective communications during the actual meetings, thus cutting a few more precious minutes.  

There was never an intentional decision by Anderson County Council to hold meetings lasting to the near six-hour mark. But also there has not been a commitment to the discipline of preparation and agenda monitoring to assure meetings are effective and timely, and thus more accessible - and attractive - to all the citizens of Anderson County. Let’s get this on the agenda.