Mahoning Valley Forum

The official council meeting lasted about six minutes.

WoW can Council afford to give up that much time in there busy schedules..Can I ask a question????? How do other City Councils operate? Is it the same as ours?

Look at it this way, the less time they are meeting, the less chances they have of finding new ways to pick our pockets, or poke their collective noses into places they have no business in. I say less is best.

In those six minutes, council passed about 17 ordinances.

The length of the meeting has nothing to do with the amount of money spent.

I recommend that every Forum member attend a city council meeting to see how they conduct the city's business.

Point well taken, but that raises the question, were those pieces of legislation bolts out of the blue drafted behind closed doors in the dark of night, or in committee?

Did you ever watch C-SPAN to view the House or Senate in session? When bills are up for a vote, even important ones, only a very small handfull of members are present for the debate, and when it comes time to vote, the others amble in cast their vote then leave. Most have never read the bill. I suspect the same is true with the state legislature.

Most of the work in any legislative body is done in committee, so if you want to really know about pending legislation, you need to attend committee sessions, and the question is, are they open to the public. Also, is it even possable to find out just what pieces of legislation are before the various committees ... ie Committee hearings at City Council?

I believe more residents of Youngstown would come to the council committee meetings if those meetings were publicized in advance and held at a reasonable time (not at 10:00 a.m. or any time during the average person's work day).

I agree there needs to be a calander published in the section of the paper with the legal notices, it should be a matter of public record and published in the Vindicator on a regular basis, and not willy-nilly at the whim of the editors.