COUNCIL REAFFIRMS CURFEW, SETS EARLIER COMMENT SLOT.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

Marathon City Council meetings are a thing of the past, with members voting to reaffim their adjournment curfew and change the meeting format to accommodate more public comments.

Members voted unanimously Tuesday night to end meetings by 11:30 p.m., and to place the opportunity for public comments higher on the agenda rather than at the end, said City Clerk Sharon Dawson.

Mayor Jo Anne Darcy had asked fellow council members to either reaffirm or revise the city's 11:30 meeting adjournment policy, and prohibits other boards and commissions from meeting past midnight.

Meetings adjourned late in recent months, when controversial items invited much public input and heated discussions, officials said.

The longest meeting - on Sept. 14 - lasted more than six hours and adjourned at 12:50 a.m., after small business owners spoke about the city sign ordinance, scheduled to take effect next month, according to Dawson.

Tuesday night's council meeting adjourned at 11:30 p.m., she said.

The council took other action Tuesday night, including:

Voting unanimously to terminate the contract for services with Brown, Winfield & Canzoneri, the Redevelopment Agency law firm, and to solicit bids for a replacement.

City staff had recommended the contract be terminated after learning the firm also represents a local developer of 38 homes, Jenna-Santa Clarita, that last month sued the William S. Hart Union High School District to recoup $28,179 in developer fees.

The developer, which claims the Hart district overcharged fees, names the city as co-defendent for revoking and refusing to reissue a building permit last spring without certification from the Hart district.

Approving an ordinance establishing a $580-per-unit fee to be collected from developers to finance new library facilities. The fee will be collected by the city when issuing building permits, then placed in a special account for new county library construction projects.

Giving the go-ahead for city staff to apply for $200,000 from the state Department of Housing and Community Development to be used to establish home rehabilitation loans and grants for low- to moderate-income households. HOME funds will require a 25-percent match from the homeowner.

Approving two passenger-loading zones and one bus-loading zone for Saugus High School along the western side of Centurion Way. Other loading zones and U-turn restrictions were approved along Peachland Avenue near Peachland Elementary School and along Grandview Drive near the Charles A. Helmers Elementary School.