Boulder City Council preparing to move meetings to Thursday

Deborah Swearingen, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
·2 min read

Jan. 23—Boulder's City Council will soon be saying goodbye to its Tuesday night meetings.

Councilmembers are preparing to move their weekly meetings and study sessions to Thursday nights, a decision they unanimously supported. But first, the Council will have to pass an ordinance that allows it to do so and make a number of other administrative and procedural changes.

Assuming the ordinance allowing the change is approved in a vote likely happening in late May, meetings will move to Thursday evenings July 14, after the Council takes its summer break.

The idea was proposed by Mayor Aaron Brockett, who said it would make City Council meetings "a more manageable commitment" for City Council members, staff and the community at large.

With packets coming out Thursday evenings, Council Agenda Committee meetings early Monday and City Council meetings the next night, "it's just kind of a tough rhythm for everyone involved," Brockett said in a November meeting when he recommended the idea.

The Boulder Revised Code specifically states meetings will occur on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, requiring an ordinance making that change.

"That we anticipate being a fairly straightforward code change that the City Attorney's office has agreed to make sure that we can accomplish," Assistant City Manager Pam Davis said in Tuesday's City Council meeting.

The change affects Planning Board meetings, which typically are on Thursdays, as well as Board of Zoning Adjustment and Building Appeals meetings. A new date for those meetings will be determined in February in collaboration with the respective board members.

However, in turn, this could affect the timeline for call-ups, approvals and landmarking decisions. City staff said it will work with those affected by the decision and ensure any changes are well communicated.

These impacts could require further tweaking of the code to ensure the timelines for various processes check out, Davis noted.

It also means the City Clerk's Office will need to get legal notices to the Camera the day after each City Council meeting to ensure the notices run over the weekend. This allows the city to maintain its two-week cadence for the first and second readings of various matters.

Though the regular meetings and study sessions will change, packets for the meeting will continue to come out the Thursday before a meeting.

"We've heard from several of you the importance of having your weekend to review materials," Davis said. "We want to preserve that."

Additionally, Council Agenda Committee meetings will remain on Monday mornings to allow staff more time to adjust the agenda and answer questions that come up in those discussions.