On September 25 the Chula Vista city council will consider changing their 4:00 PM meetings to 10:00 AM.

The staff report for the meeting time change suggests this would serve the city financially because overtime compensation for staff would be avoided. The report also makes the argument that the County Board of Supervisors and the City of San Diego hold meetings during the morning hours.

Council member Patricia Aguilar said in a September 24 interview that she intends to pull the agenda item from the consent calendar so that it can be discussed. She said she intends "to listen and participate in the discussion, but I am leaning toward the idea that the time of the meeting is related to our democracy. Scheduling the meeting at an inconvenient time reduces the ability of people to participate."

In addition Aguilar pointed out that Chula Vista council meetings should not be compared to the meetings of the County Board of Supervisors or San Diego city meetings. "Those are full-time positions. We kept our city council positions part-time so that the job would not be so political. Regular people with a 9-5 job will not be able to sit on the council and serve their community."

Aguilar also observed that the staff report does not detail the fiscal savings.