City Council approves a midnight meeting curfew

Hoping to head off marathon San Jose council meetings that end at 2 a.m., city leaders Tuesday approved a new curfew.

The council voted 9-1 to stop City Council meetings at midnight, a move that comes after several meetings last year dragged into the early morning hours. Councilman Donald Rocha opposed, saying the latenight meetings are “more rare than common.” Councilman Lan Diep was absent.

But the new curfew has some wiggle room. The council on Tuesday agreed to allow Mayor Sam Liccardo the ability to extend it by 15 minutes or more if items are getting close to a vote.

The curfew, recommended by council members Chappie Jones and Dev Davis, doesn’t specify when the council will continue discussions if they’re not done by midnight. The initial proposal suggested continuing at 10 a.m. the following day, but that presented scheduling conflicts.

San Jose’s council meets 1:30 p.m. every Tuesday with an extra evening session a couple times a month. The council recently agreed to start the evening session an hour earlier — at 6 p.m. — in an effort to finish earlier.

Government watchdogs said San Jose’s lengthy meetings deter public participation and hurt government transparency.

“I’d have concerns that the City Council members themselves aren’t operating on a full tank of gas at two in the morning,” said David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition. “And it would serve the public better for them to be fully rested before making important decisions.”

Some council members also said residents should be allowed to speak earlier during the meetings. Currently, they have to wait until the end of meetings to speak on issues not on the agenda.

“Sometimes our meeting will run so late in the day that the public comment is pushing to the midnight hour or even beyond,” said Councilman Raul Peralez, who suggested moving “open forum” public comments to the beginning of meetings.

Last Tuesday, the San Jose council ended its meeting past midnight. Residents such as Scott Largent had to wait nearly six hours to speak on items not on the agenda. The council meeting was more than 10 hours long.

“I had important things I want to talk about and now I’m just going to talk about the fact that we’re getting scammed here in San Jose,” Largent told the council. “This isn’t right. This isn’t right to do to people. We wait here all day long. Why is public comment not in the beginning of these meetings?”

Liccardo said during a committee meeting that he hesitates to move up the public comment period because some speakers could deliberately use that time to push back votes on other items. The council on Tuesday deferred a decision on that until next week.

Also Tuesday, the City Council voted unanimously to maintain gift limits of $50. The city policy, which has been in place since the 1980s, prohibits lawmakers from accepting a gift valued at more than $50 — including any tickets to sporting events.

Diep in June said the policy creates confusion because it varies from state law, which allows elected officials to accept gifts valued up to $470. He recommended striking San Jose’s policy and aligning with state law. The council approved it June 20 on a 8-3 vote.

But some elected leaders, including Liccardo and Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco, fought against the changes and pushed to keep gift limits at $50.