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The Troup County Board of Commissioners entertained the idea of changing its meeting times during its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night.

The board currently meets four times a month, with two work sessions and two board meetings. Work sessions take place on Thursdays and board meetings are on the following Tuesday.

The time for the meetings rotate between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. One set of meetings — a work session on Thursday and a board meeting on Tuesday — takes place at 9 a.m. Then, the following set of meetings take place at 5 p.m.

Chairman Patrick Crews spearheaded Tuesday’s conversation by suggesting that a work session and board meeting take place on the same day, consolidating the board’s meetings to twice a month.

“This is very similar to what other local governments, the school board, LaGrange and Hogansville for sure, do,” he said. “If we do it this way, then we would have the opportunity for one in the mornings … and one in the afternoons.”

Should the board take action on the idea, which would be at its next Nov. 2 meeting, the changes would not take place until January 2022, Crews said.
Commissioner Morris Jones suggested combining the work session and evening meeting into one meeting, having the work session first and the board meeting right after.

“There are a lot of times when [business] in a work session can be handled at the same time instead of carrying it over into the meeting,” he explained.

The times could still rotate between morning and afternoon.

Work sessions are intended to provide opportunities for board members to discuss issues or agenda items before the actual meeting and are open to the public.

In rare cases, items are voted on during these meetings.

“We’ve given people more opportunities to come to a meeting than ever before,” Crews said. “People are going to come to a commission meeting if it’s business for them.”

The commission also streams its meetings on the Troup County website. Crews suggested staff gather the watch traffic from the stream to track the amount of viewership.

This could be the second time the commission has altered its meeting time in a few years.

The commission met at 9 a.m. exclusively until 2019 when it decided to start rotating meetings between mornings and 5 p.m. so more citizens could attend.