Here are a few items the council...

Here are a few items the council considered Monday.

TIME, DAY AND ORDER OF MEETINGS

The council will consider moving its meetings to Tuesdays, holding

closed sessions earlier and limiting special presentations to five

minutes, but council members decided not to tamper with the public

comment setup.

Some council members thought Tuesday meetings would allow more

time to prepare and reduce conflicts with other meetings, allowing

more people to attend. The other changes were designed to streamline

the order of business at meetings, but council members stopped short

of limiting public comment at the beginning of the meeting to half an

hour and moving the rest to the end. On the advice of City Atty.

Kimberly Barlow, however, the council may change its permissive

attitude toward letting audience members repeatedly get up to clarify

statements or ask further questions.

WHAT IT MEANS

The council will consider a resolution that would change the day

and other meeting details at their Feb. 22 meeting -- which is

notably being held on a Tuesday, because Monday is the President’s

Day holiday.

WHAT WAS SAID

“I believe we do need to allow the public to feel welcome to come

and express their views, because that’s our barometer of how well

we’re doing our job,” Councilman Eric Bever said.

FEDERAL HOMELESS SERVICES GRANTS

The city will no longer devote a set percentage of federal Housing

and Urban Development grant funds to services for the homeless. Up to

15% of some HUD grants can go to nonprofit agencies that serve city

residents, and last year the city put 25% of that total toward

services for the homeless.

A redevelopment committee recommended reducing that amount to 10%,

but the council opted to nix the required percentage altogether,

noting that most other cities dole out HUD grants based on a list of

city priorities, not a specific dollar amount.

WHAT IT MEANS

Organizations that already applied for the most recent round of

funding may be concerned about the change because it will become

effective for the upcoming fiscal year. The council will hear

recommendations from the city’s Redevelopment and Residential

Rehabilitation Committee on how to spend any federal grant funds the

city receives.