WHATCOM COUNTY, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Upcoming changes could shorten the length of Whatcom County Council meetings for the rest of the year.

The council voted last month to pilot changes to their meeting day procedures and committee format.

Starting on Tuesday, Sept. 15, the council’s regular committee meetings will be reduced to Finance and Administrative Services Committee and Committee of the Whole.

The council will also take action on contracts, finance-related ordinances and appointments during the morning finance committee instead of the evening council meeting.

Council chair Kaylee Galloway says the changes came in response to a growing workload in recent years.

“We’ve really grown our body of work over the years and what was happening is that some of our council meetings were turning into 14, upwards of 16-hour days, starting as early as 8 or 8:30 in the morning and ending sometimes at midnight,” Galloway told My Bellingham Now. “This was kind of an unsustainable workload for our staff, both in the council office as well as staff across the county government.”

The finance committee will now include half an hour for public comment at the start of each meeting.

Items that would previously be discussed in other committees, such as criminal justice, public works and natural resources, will now be brought up in the Committee of the Whole.

According to Galloway, the idea for the changes came up when the executive’s office asked the council to find ways to cut costs during the recent budget process. She says the hourly wages saved from council members, council staff, administrative staff, contracted security and other employees working less as a result of the shorter meetings “really adds up.”

The council will hold a public hearing on Dec. 8 to get feedback from community members before deciding whether to make the changes permanent.