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Question: How does the general public attend meetings of Mansfield City Council? Where should you park? Which building entrances are unlocked? What time do the meetings begin and on what days?
MANSFIELD — An Open Source question about public meetings? Be still my heart.
As a grizzled, old, journalism curmudgeon who covered his first local government meeting more than 40 years ago, I was thrilled to see this one come into Richland Source.
I wished more people cared about local government meetings — city, county, village, townships and school boards.
This is where the real governing takes place. What happens at this level of government is what impacts our daily lives far more than at the national level.
Voters elect these local men and women into office — and then tend not to pay very attention to the decisions they make.
So let’s tackle these questions:
— Mansfield City Council meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month, unless there is an election scheduled that night. In those instances, City Council is moved to the following evening on Wednesday. (Note: There is only one meeting in July.) Special council meetings can also be called, though those have been historically rare.)
(Below is a PDF with the Mansfield City Council 2024 meeting schedule.)
— All Mansfield City Council meetings are open to the public, including all committee meetings. I write council preview meetings for Richland Source, trying to highlight the biggest issues up for discussion. These stories include PDFs of the pending legislation. Council previews usually publish on Mondays, depending on what else is happening in the news.
Here is an example of a recent City Council preview story, which included a PDF of the entire legislative agenda:
— Members of the public planning to attend a City Council meeting should park in the lot on the building’s west side and enter through the first-floor doorway marked “police.” Get in the elevator and ride to the third floor. City Council chambers is on that floor. (During normal weekday business hours, the public must enter the Park Avenue East side of the building and go through the metal detector.)
— The evening begins with any scheduled committee meetings. These are scheduled as needed, primarily between 6 and 7 p.m. There are 12 different standing committees. The bulk of committee meeting time is spent going over legislation scheduled for vote that evening. So if you want to hear local lawmakers talk about the issues on which they will vote, get there in time for the committee meetings.
— These meetings include the mayor, finance director, law director, public works director and safety service director, all of whom are invited to provide remarks. They may also answer questions raised by council members during discussions.
— Assuming committee meetings don’t run long, council caucus is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. each evening. These include brief descriptions of the legislation scheduled for vote — and any additional discussion that needs to take place that perhaps didn’t occur during committee meetings.
— Immediately after caucus, City Council’s legislative session begins with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer. Each bill’s title is then read aloud by Clerk Delaine Weiner. There may be more discussion (though not often once the meeting reaches this stage) and council members cast their votes. Those votes are done electronically (if systems are working) or by voice vote (if they are not.)
— Just an FYI — if you can’t attend in person, these same City Council meetings, including committees, are livestreamed on the city’s Facebook page and the city’s own website.
