Three times in the last two months Lafayette City Council meetings ran until after midnight. Two of those meetings didn’t even start until after midnight. These late meetings are disenfranchising the residents of the city of Lafayette who are having to wait for hours to participate in their city government.

The reason these meetings are starting so late is because in Lafayette’s form of consolidated government a decision was made earlier this year to have the parish council and any joint council meetings happen before the city council meeting. The reason to have them all on the same day was to make it easier on staff and to have the two councils meet together. Also the city council tends to have longer meetings due to dealing with complex issues like managing a utility and a telecom.

But this well-intentioned effort is preventing city residents from having reasonable access to their city council meetings. So in order to encourage more public participation in city council meetings, especially among those who are unable to stay up so late, we demand that the city council change the date of their meeting so that it no longer has to wait to start its meeting until late into the night.