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Residents urge flexible meeting times and volunteer help as council discusses workload
Summary
Residents at the June 9 hearing urged the Scofield council to recruit volunteers and consider meeting times that accommodate workers commuting from nearby towns; council and staff acknowledged constraints, sparse candidate pools for elected positions, and said they would explore task lists and notice timing.
Public commenters at the June 9 Scofield hearing urged the council to tap resident volunteers to reduce expenses and to adjust meeting scheduling so working residents can participate.
Speaker 5 told the council that people who come up on weekends or from nearby towns often cannot attend a 6:00 p.m. Monday meeting. "Mondays is the is the worst for workers," Speaker 5 said, adding that people commuting from Spanish Fork and other towns "can't get here at 6." The speaker urged the council to consider volunteers who could do tasks such as mowing to save the town money.
Council members and staff said they sympathize but noted practical constraints: street lights, insurance and certain contracted tasks are fixed costs; some duties previously done by council members are now paid work and workload for staff has increased. Speaker 3 suggested compiling a list of town tasks residents could sign up for, while Speaker 2 said notices for meetings are posted about two weeks in advance.
Participants also raised the town's thin candidate pool for elections and the difficulty of replacing or removing elected members for attendance reasons under state law; speakers said absences can result in docked pay but not forced replacement.
No formal action or change to meeting schedules was recorded in the transcript; staff and council said they would discuss solutions further.
