Often chaotic Paterson council to hold fewer meetings. Will that be better?

PATERSON — Will fewer be better?

That’s the assertion being made by Paterson City Council members — notorious for their lengthy, chaotic, and tumultuous sessions — as the explanation for their vote on Monday to reduce the number of public meetings they will hold.

The new meeting schedule has one workshop and one voting session per month. In the past, the Paterson council held two workshops and two voting meetings per month, with exceptions such as during the summer and around the holidays in November and December.

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During the past two years, most council meetings — which start at 7 p.m. — have dragged on well past midnight. The recent record for a marathon session happened in April 2023, when a Paterson council meeting lasted for more than nine hours and ended at 4:17 a.m .

The city councils of Elizabeth, Jersey City, and Newark all hold two workshop sessions and two voting meetings per month, except during the summer when they have one of each, according to the schedules on their municipal websites.

Only Councilman Michael Jackson voted against the Paterson schedule change on Monday.

“What this means,” Jackson said, “is there’s less meetings for the public to come here and scrutinize the work and the job that this council is failing.”

Jackson asserted that the change was snuck onto the agenda in a “backdoor deal.” Jackson initially voted in favor of the new meeting schedule for 2024-25, not realizing the number of sessions had been reduced. He quickly reversed his vote.

But other council members celebrated the new schedule.

Councilwoman Lilisa Mimms said fewer meetings would remove the heavy burden on the City Clerk’s staff, security guards, and police officers who work at City Hall during the Tuesday night sessions.

Councilman Md Forid Uddin said having fewer meetings will give council members more time to spend with their constituents. He said that as part of the schedule change the city will resume making video recordings of its workshop sessions, a practice that was stopped about two years ago.

Council President Alex Mendez said that cutting the number of public meetings will mean that members of the governing body will have to work harder during their committee sessions, which are conducted in private.

“This is what teamwork looks like,” Mendez proclaimed.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Often chaotic Paterson council to hold fewer meetings. Will that be better?