Mayoral candidates discuss improving efficency at council meetings
During Thursday's mayoral forum, moderator Don Laird asked the mayoral candidates how they plan to make city council meetings more efficient.
“We get trapped into doing things the way they have always been done,” candidate Jerry Wade said.
Since April 2009, meetings have averaged around 3 hours, with the longest being 7 hours and 22 minutes on July 20.
Mayoral candidate Paul Love said if the council met more times a month to spread out the workload, the meetings would be more efficient. Candidate Sid Sullivan said the city council needs more control over the agenda in order to maximize the time at meetings.
Efficiency in the city council meetings rests on the mayor, candidate Bob McDavid said.
“The power of the gavel is to keep people on point,” McDavid said.
With Columbia’s population totaling more than 100,000, Sean O'Day said the workload is too much for an unpaid official.
“It’s going to be inevitable to provide the city council with some kind of stipend,” the candidate said.
The Columbia mayoral, Third and Fourth Ward city council elections will be held on April 6.