Letter: Start the Council meetings at a time that’s convenient

Dear Editor,
For the past year, starting in August 2010, The city Of Gilroy has started their Council meetings at 6 p.m. This early start time makes it very difficult for residents of Gilroy to attend the Council meeting.
Many of our working residents commute to work and are unable to attend this early. If the city were to return back to the 7 p.m. meeting time this would give many more residents the opportunity to be participative in their local government and to share their perspectives and priorities.
It is also difficult for family members with small children to attend as this time falls within what one would call the normal dinner hour. A survey that we conducted of the 15 cities located in Santa Clara County shows that Gilroy had the earliest evening start time. Eleven cities meet at 7 p.m or later.
In their Nov. 12, 2011 meeting, the Gilroy Democratic Club took the formal position that the City of Gilroy should return their City Council meeting time to 7 p.m. We think that this would be an excellent question for the Dispatch’s Community Pulse Poll and are respectively requesting that this question be posed in one of your future weekly polls.
Residents who wish to show support for this change can email to Ke**************@ya***.com.
Janet Espersen, Marilyn MacDonald, Tom Espersen,
co-chairs, Save Our Gilroy Foothills