Staff recommends Council approve replacing the second work session of the month (December 16th) with the second regular business meeting and vacate the December 23rd Regular Business meeting date.
 

Per Billings, Montana City Code, Sec. 2-211, City Council shall hold regular business meetings on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, unless the meeting would fall on a day recognized as a holiday, then the meeting would be held on the following day (Tuesday). Any regular business meeting may be canceled or rescheduled by majority vote of the Council at any time prior to the date scheduled for such meetings. Traditionally, during the month of December, Councilmembers and staff are on extended holiday leave during the week of Christmas. Therefore, the second work session meeting of the month (third Monday) is vacated in order to hold the second regular business meeting.

This year Christmas is on Wednesday (the 25th) of the fourth week. This year also has a unique situation involving the move of City Hall and Council Chambers to the New City Hall building. In anticipation of the move, it will be necessary to provide time for Channel 7 TV, the IT Department, Spectrum, and the audio-visual company, Teledata, to move cameras and equipment and fiber switch from City Hall to the new building and conduct testing before another Council meeting is held. 

Therefore, Staff is asking Council to replace the second work session (December 16th) with the second regular business meeting and vacate the December 23rd meeting date.

City Council may:

• Approve staff's recommendation to alter meeting schedule; or
• Disapprove staff's recommendation to alter the December meeting schedule and leave it as is with 2 work sessions in December and 2 regular business meetings. Doing so, may hinder or prevent installation and implementation of audio-visual equipment and fiber switch to be prepared for Council meetings in the New City Hall after the first of the new year.

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