Hamilton County commissioners send proposal to move weekly meetings to 4 p.m. to committee

Chairman Smith referred a resolution to change the county commission’s weekly meeting time to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and amend the fiscal year 2026 general fund budget by $48,900 to the Rules and Legislative committee for additional review and a committee meeting next week.

Commissioner Ebersole introduced the item, saying: "why is our time that we meet at 09:30 in Wednesday morning, why don't we change it to a time that our constituents can participate and not have to take off work?" Ebersole told colleagues she had worked with the clerk's office and other departments to estimate the costs of holding evening meetings.

The proposal drew a mix of support and caution from colleagues. Commissioners praised the goal of increasing public participation but raised concerns about added costs and impacts on people with church commitments or nonstandard work shifts. Commissioner Highlander said some constituents "are concerned . . . if we change it to a day other than Wednesday." Commissioner Mackey urged caution about spending taxpayer money and noted shift workers could be disadvantaged by a fixed evening time. Commissioner Graham suggested the item go to committee for more study. Commissioner Beck and Commissioner Shipley emphasized security and staffing challenges that would accompany evening meetings.

Commissioners and staff discussed the county’s cost estimate for moving meetings. Ebersole cited roughly $48,900 in annual costs, broken down in materials provided to the board as approximately $25,300 for the sheriff's office, about $10,000 for the county clerk's office, roughly $10,400 for county telecommunications, and about $3,200 for Walden Security. Several commissioners asked staff to double-check those numbers and explore options such as flex scheduling to reduce costs.

Members of the public who addressed the board generally supported a later meeting time. Andrew Jones said the change would benefit the majority of workers and argued the budget impact was small, stating: "84% of The United States works a 9 to 5 job, so that leaves 16%... I would strongly encourage that, for working for democracy, the 84%... win that battle." Mikaela Winter, who recently moved to District 8, told the board that many local elected bodies meet in the evening and urged a trial run: "I think experimenting would be a great idea. I think a trial run looking at, how this works out and what the actual impact is would be much better than doing nothing at all."

Rather than vote on the measure, the commission agreed to send the resolution to the Rules and Legislative committee for further study. Chairman Smith asked Commissioner Hilton to chair that committee; Hilton agreed to hear the item next week. Commissioner Graham proposed, and several members supported, considering a short trial run of evening meetings before making a permanent change.

The commission did not take a recorded vote on the resolution in the public record of this meeting; members asked staff for more detailed cost information and for input from the sheriff's department, security contractor and other affected offices before the committee meets.