OCEANSIDE — City Council will soon implement a cost-saving change by moving the council meeting time up to earlier in the day. The change to start meetings at 3 p.m. will save the city staff costs for employees who need to put in longer days to attend the meetings. The earlier meeting time was OK’d in a 3-1 vote in which Councilman Jack Feller voted no and Councilman Rocky Chavez abstained, due to his assignment as undersecretary for the California Department of Veteran Affairs and pending resignation from council.
Beginning in January, council meetings will start an hour earlier and hold closed session at 3 p.m., general business at 4 p.m., presentations at 5:30 p.m., and certain public hearings at 6 p.m. The time for public hearing items remains the same. The thought is that the 6 p.m. time allows more folks who are working to attend and speak on hearing items.
The new meeting time may not be ideal for everyone, but will save the city money. “Seniors like meetings in the daytime, working class likes meetings at night,” Mayor Jim Wood said. “The staff has to stay late and that costs money.” The earlier meeting time will cut those costs.
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