By a 4-1 vote Monday Avondale Estates’ Board of Mayor and Commissioners elected to move its monthly meeting back one hour to 6:30 p.m. The only dissenting vote was Mayor Pro Tem Terry Giager, the commission’s longest–serving (6½ years) member.
“This just means we get out of here earlier,” Mayor Jonathan Elmore told the AJC. “It means that city staffers, who’ve been [at city hall] all day don’t have to go home for dinner and then come back here for the meeting.”
The new ordinance states that the commission “desires” an earlier starting time “in order to make the operation of city government more efficient and to encourage citizen participation at regular meetings.”
Giager doesn’t buy it.
“It’s not that I’m against change,” he said, “but [the 7:30 start] has worked pretty good for decades. I fail to see how an earlier start time makes our government more efficient. I don’t see how it will increase participation, either, since a lot of people don’t get home until 7 or 7:30.”
The new meeting time will take effect next month.
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