The City Council recently passed an initiative directing staff to hold a public hearing and schedule action on whether to move Council work sessions from the Billings Community Center  to the Council Chambers on the second floor of the Police Department, 220 N. 27th St., so they can be televised by Channel 7.   Work sessions are held at 5:30 p.m. the first and third Mondays of each month.  They involve in-depth discussions on selected issues and can result only in direction to the staff.   Some Council members have expressed concerns that moving the work sessions to the more formal atmosphere of the Chambers will intimidate the public enough to prevent participation in the sessions; others have said that opening up the proceedings through television will make the City's process more transparent to taxpayers.

Business sessions already are held in the Council Chambers at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, and are televised through an automated camera system in the Chambers.  Those meetings involve formal Council votes on a variety of items, such as appointments, bid awards, planning and policy decisions. 

The Municipal Court, which occupies the Chambers during the day, has said that it can accommodate the work sessions by using its second courtroom when necessary.  Channel 7 also can accommodate adding the work sessions to its schedule.  However, Council work sessions would be shown on Channel 8 rather than Channel 7 on the third Monday of the month, which already is scheduled for a School District #2 Board meeting.

The Council must hold a public hearing and then may:

• Move the City Council work sessions to the Council Chambers at 5:30 p.m. on the first and third Monday of each month;
• Move the Council work sessions to another location or time, although another location likely will not allow the meetings to be televised; or
• Keep the work sessions at 5:30 p.m. the first and third Monday of the month at the Billings Community Center.  

Channel 7 staff has indicated the move would cost the City an additional $50 per month to pay for staff to monitor and switch cameras for the work sessions if they are moved to the Council Chambers.

Staff recommends that, if the Council wishes to televise its work sessions as well as its business sessions, it moves the meetings to 5:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of the month in the Council Chambers.