County council revises meeting schedule
An abundance of work session requests, upcoming hearings and other things led the Clark County Council on Wednesday to revise its weekly meeting schedule.
The county council typically holds work sessions starting at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays with council time beginning immediately after. While work sessions will continue to start at 9 a.m., the council time meeting will now begin at 1 p.m. The updated schedule goes into effect the week of Oct. 9.
“There has been a lot of discussion when our meetings are running to 12:30 p.m. or 1 o’clock. How about lunch, particularly if we see quite a bit of agenda remaining,” Chair Karen Bowerman said. “This is an effort to begin to address that and make it so our meetings are comfortable for others.”
The council reviewed two options for meeting times and scheduled breaks. One option included holding work sessions on Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings, with council time to follow after.
The other option, which the council selected, continued with holding work sessions on Wednesday mornings but gave a specific start time for the council time portion of the meeting.
“For the public, separating the work session from council time makes sense,” Councilor Sue Marshall said. “Often, people get confused and want to comment during council time on work session topics… Knowing when we’re going to be starting council time for sure, that would be helpful.”
The council hearing schedule will remain the same with hearings taking place at 10 a.m. on the first and fourth Tuesdays and at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month. An optional time for additional hearings, if needed, is 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday.
All public meetings, hearings, work sessions and council time meetings are held in a hybrid format with in-person and virtual attendance options.
For Information on how to attend or participate in council meetings, go to https://clark.wa.gov/councilors/council-meeting-information.
Due to scheduling conflicts, the council will not meet on Oct. 25. Additionally, the council will not meet the weeks of Nov. 20, due to the Thanksgiving holiday, and the weeks of Dec. 18 and 25 due to the Christmas holiday.
Council hearings for the 2024 budget process begin at 2 p.m. on Dec. 4 and continue daily until final adoption of the budget.
— Shari Phiel
