Moving council meetings would still make sense

We were disappointed to hear that the idea of moving City Council meetings to the Heritage Senior Center on a permanent basis didn't gain much traction at Monday night's meeting.

That's OK; members of the council have the right to make that decision -- after all, it's their meeting, isn't it?

Unfortunately, it's easy for elected bodies to adopt that attitude. Unless there's a controversial issue, the only people in attendance are members of the board, paid employees and perhaps a stray reporter.

But the arguments for keeping public council meetings in the basement of Memorial Auditorium don't carry much weight.

One is electronic voting system in the council chambers. It's hard to believe the system couldn't be moved, or even left behind. Most locally elected public bodies get along just fine without toggle switches and colored lights -- in the past, wags have even accused some council members of wiring their voting lights together.

Another argument was that the Senior Center didn't have the Council Chamber's public address system. The fact is, the Senior Center has pretty good acoustics already without one. The Council Chambers have notoriously bad acoustics, and it isn't unusual for discussion to be missed, even with the microphones turned on.

It's true that conducting meetings across town from the city offices would be more inconvenient than having them down the hall, and would require more advanced planning, but that shouldn't be a deal breaker. These days, a $10 flash drive can carry all the documents any meeting could possibly require, and surely a photocopier is available at the Senior Center.

We've always found city staff members to be more than accommodating, but attending a City Council meeting can be intimidating for a fully mobile person; imagine asking to be carried down a flight of stairs in your wheelchair just to exercise your rights as a citizen. It would be easier just to stay home and vent to your friends or to call a radio talk show.

If plans for new city facilities come to fruition, we're sure the City Council will be meeting in much more welcoming, accommodating facilities.

Until that happens, if it ever does, moving council meetings to the Heritage Senior Center would make sense.