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It is more important for a city commission to make good decisions than fast ones.
Last week, Dunedin city commissioners took an important step toward making better decisions by giving themselves more time for discussions.
Ten years ago, the City Commission had a member, Tom Osborne, who had strong opinions about city business and was prone to talk so long that his colleagues complained about commission meetings going on until midnight.
So they approved a rule that limited each commissioner to five minutes of discussion on each item on the agenda. If a commissioner asked a question of a city employee, the time it took the employee to answer got deducted from the commissioner's five minutes. If the commissioner ran out of time and wanted to say or ask more, he or she could get another five minutes, but only if the mayor called on the commissioner to speak.
The Dunedin commission also had a rule saying it had to adjourn its meetings by 11 p.m., even if it had not completed its agenda. The commission had to give unanimous approval to extend the time.
It is rather ridiculous that the Dunedin commission lived for 10 years with these rules that were established primarily to muzzle Osborne, who left the commission five years ago. Many decisions made by the commission in the past decade could have benefitted from more free-flowing discussion and debate and more extensive questioning of staff and consultants.
It was Commissioner Bob Hackworth who got fed up with the rules a few months ago and proposed changing them. Hackworth and Mayor John Doglione would not make each other's favorite people lists, and Hackworth thought that the mayor, who chairs the meetings, was using the five-minute rule more strictly with him than with others on the commission. There is another potential negative to Dunedin's odd time limit on elected officials: A mayor so inclined could use the rules to limit the effectiveness of commissioners he didn't like.
Hackworth learned that most other local governments don't limit the time elected officials may speak. Last week, he persuaded three of his colleagues - Dave Eggers, Deborah Kynes and Julie Scales - to support changes in that and other awkward and limiting rules of procedure.
Mayor Doglione, who had praised the rules because they limited "yackety-yacks," cast the sole vote against the changes. He said he fears that meetings could become "a gabfest" and that some commissioners will try to dominate the discussions, not giving others an opportunity to talk.
It is unlikely that Hackworth, Eggers, Scales or Kynes will try to play "King of the Hill" now that the rules have changed. They are well-educated professionals, serious about their duties and capable of working together courteously.
But if they do have a lot to say on some issues and if meetings run longer, so what? The public elected all five members of the City Commission to do a job and do it well, not to watch the clock.