SACO — The Saco City Council will meet a bit earlier on Monday nights to better accommodate workshop sessions.

The council began the practice this past Monday, when it held a workshop session at 6:30 p.m. and proceeded with its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Previously, the council had conducted workshops after the regular meetings. This is the start to a new schedule that the council adopted later that evening.

The city charter requires every newly seated city council to determine rules of order and business, and through these discussions, the council decided to change the start time of meetings and when workshops will be held.

The city council votes on items and makes official decisions at regular council meetings, and reviews and discusses items at workshops.

Newly elected mayor Ron Michaud said the council initially discussed the changes at a workshop last week. The council had been meeting twice a month, he said, with work- shops held after regular council meetings – typically with councilors still seated at the front of the council chambers and addressed by members of the public or staff from a podium.

Michaud said he didn’t think that was the best setup for workshops. He said workshops should be a time to discuss things around a table with staff in a relaxed manner.

“I’m trying to work for efficiency,” he said.

Michaud suggested the council meet four Mondays a month as it once had, with the second and fourth Mondays being workshop meetings, but the majority of the council was “not too keen on four Mondays a month,” he said.

As a compromise, the council decided to meet three times a month, with regular council meetings on the first and the third Monday of the month in council chambers, and workshops on the second Monday of the month. Workshops will also be held before regular council meetings the first or third Monday of the month.

Meetings on the first and third Mondays of the month will start at 6:30 p.m., and meetings held on the second Monday of the month will begin at 6 p.m.

Councilor Kevin Roche said the 6:30 meeting time on the first and third Wednesdays will allow the council to move forward with workshop discussion before the regular council meeting so members of the public who come in relation to a workshop item don’t have to wait until 9 p.m. or later for the item to be discussed.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].