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Columbiana councilman to put proposed legislation online
COLUMBIANA
A councilman said that he will scan proposed legislation into his computer and put it on his website for the public to view.
The move is a spinoff of an effort to give legislators time to look at new issues.
At the last council meeting, Councilman Bryan Blakeman made a motion that council stop accepting proposed legislation on the Friday before council meetings. Council regularly meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
The motion was approved.
Blakeman wanted council to have more time to review items that were going before council.
In the past, council often proposed new legislation at the start of the council meetings.
The councilman did not set a cutoff time, such as noon on Friday, for the release of information. But the change was designed to give council members a better idea of upcoming issues.
For years, a packet of documents on pending legislation has been delivered by a city worker to the homes of the council members late Friday afternoon. The packet was designed to inform councilmen who, over the weekend or on Monday or Tuesday before a meeting, could look into an issue or problem the packet indicated would be discussed at the next meeting, he said.
That procedure will continue, Blakeman said.
There was no discussion at council about how members of the public could view the upcoming legislation. Blakeman noted many people have computers and can look at the proposals online. People also could look at the legislation using computers at the Columbiana Public Library.
When the council packet arrives Friday, Blakeman said that he will scan it on his personal computer and put it on his website. His website is http://www.columbianacitycouncil.com/.
Blakeman said he is getting about 1,000 hits a month on his site.