MORENCI — Changes to Morenci City Hall’s office hours were approved at the Aug. 11 city council meeting. Beginning Sept. 8, City Hall will keep its current hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, but will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
The new hours will be for a six-month trial period, and city staff will compile data for the council to review at the end of the six months.
Several council members said they had heard from residents who wanted City Hall to be open on Fridays. At their July meeting, council members discussed the idea of being open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. five days a week, but one objection to that idea was that some people’s work obligations might keep them from being able to make it to City Hall during those hours.
The vote to approve being open five days a week, with later hours on Monday, was 5-1. The dissenting vote came from council member Dave Lonis.
“What’s the reasoning for changing it?” Lonis asked. “No matter how you do it, people are going to complain about something.”
Council member Kandi Speiser, who chairs the finance and legal committee, said she’s heard a number of comments from people who would like City Hall to be open on Fridays, and noted that around holidays, the four-day schedule can result in going even longer without people being able to conduct business with the city.
Council member Diane Molitierno said the topic “has been in the back of our minds for a while.” With the new schedule, she said, “we’re trying to accommodate having a late night and still being open five days a week.”
Data reviewed by the council shows that the late afternoon hours have the smallest number of transactions conducted at City Hall. However, Speiser asked city clerk and superintendent Jeff Bell if city staff could track not just transactions, but also walk-in traffic overall over the course of the next six months. She noted that people sometimes also go to City Hall to ask questions or pick up paperwork.
“Our numbers show financial transactions, but that might not catch all of the foot traffic that may or may not be coming in,” she said.