Assembly moves meetings due to sound issues, considers earlier start time
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 28, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 28, 2025
Monday’s meeting is at Centennial Hall at 7 p.m., future meetings may start at 6 p.m.
The Juneau Assembly is temporarily moving its meeting space to Centennial Hall, where tonight it may also permanently move the start time of its meetings to 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m.
Sound quality issues in the Assembly Chambers at City Hall are persisting to the detriment of the public process, Assembly members and city administrators agreed at a Committee of the Whole meeting on July 14. Unamplified sound in the room carries poorly, and overhead speakers at the back of the room can be muddled or otherwise hard to hear over fans and other noises.
"I know it must be very frustrating for people to come for a topic they very much care about and pack those seats, and just not be able to hear us," Assembly Member Ella Adkison said during the July 14 meeting. "If Zoom is more effective than being here in person I find that troubling."
City Manager Katie Koester said it will cost about $60,000 to upgrade the sound system, a potentially questionable upgrade since city officials are negotiating moving most of its City Hall operations to the Michael J. Burns Building. However, she said those negotiations and a move will take time, so "there is no scenario where we are not in this building for at least another year."
Because of that reality, Koester also told Assembly members she had reserved Centennial Hall for the regular July 28 meeting and an alternative venue other than the Assembly Chambers should be considered for future meetings until the sound quality issue is resolved.
"We had a meeting there when this room flooded and it worked really well," she said, referring to a meeting that took place at the convention hall last August.
There was little discussion of where Assembly meetings might be held for the next several weeks or months until an updated sound system was installed, although some members said they were agreeable to Centennial Hall as a venue and also suggested a school site where public meetings are held as an option.
One of the agenda items at Monday’s meeting is a resolution that would change the start times of regular Assembly meetings to 6 p.m., an hour earlier than currently scheduled. The Assembly’s Committee of the Whole meetings already start at 6 p.m.
Koester said the change is based on discussions with Assembly members and others about a broader set of changes to municipal meetings, such as whether more should occur during lunch hours or be grouped together at consecutive times.
"The general feedback was people were OK with more lunchtime meetings (and) OK with earlier meetings," she said. "People were very cognizant of the fact that we have a working Assembly, and how challenging it is for members to make it here for a 5 p.m. start time and/or a lunch meeting. I heard feedback from people that was like, ‘Hey, I can do a 5 p.m. or I can do a lunch meeting. But all of that at once begins to be a little bit difficult. There was also a real preference for consolidating our meetings so that you guys get breaks."
Another change discussed is scheduling executive sessions before public meetings start — rather than at the end of meetings — with a hard cap on the length of the closed sessions. Such a session occurred before a recent meeting to discuss ongoing employee contract negotiations, for instance, and Assembly members at the July 14 meeting generally expressed a preference for such an approach.
"That was probably the most effective executive session that I participated in as an Assembly member," said Wade Bryson, who is completing his second term this year.
A set time limit may make executive sessions difficult if members are struggling to reach a decision, Koester said. However, with the current end-of-meeting approach "it's really hard to ask you to make really impactful decisions at 10 or 11 o'clock at night."
Meetings stretching far into the night was a concern also expressed by Mayor Beth Weldon, who said if the Assembly approves an earlier start time it needs to ensure a four-hour time limit (that can be extended by a vote of members) remains in place.
"If we start earlier we should add in our rules procedure that we end earlier too, so we go to 10 instead of 11," she said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
