City council changes meeting time

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Maricopa City Council has changed the start time of its regular meetings on the first and third Tuesdays of the month and shortened the amount of time citizens can make comments to the board.

The council will now meet at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than it had been meeting. The change will be effective with its April 19 session. All meetings are held in council chambers at City Hall.

Also approved Tuesday night was a revision to city code that institutes a 3-minute limit on citizens addressing the council during the public comment period of meetings. It had been 5 minutes, even though council has been using the 3-minute limit informally.

Typically, few residents address council at their meetings.

As the chair of city council meetings, Mayor Christian Price has the right to set the limit, or to extend or even cancel the public comment period altogether, city attorney Denis Fitzgibbons told the council. The mayor will continue to have that discretion after the code change.

“Of course, we want to be fair to everybody so that’s why we announced that even though we’re shortening the time, sometimes there’s reason for that discretion,” Price said.