Until 2014, City Council members met twice a month in three-member subcommittees like public works, finance and municipal services.

In those meetings, City leaders chewed over proposed legislation reflecting the various facets of City services, and listened while City staff presented in-depth reports about their areas.

Two years ago, however, moved by the possibility of having all council members in one room at the same time, among other concerns, council members switched to twice-a-month study sessions.

The City Council, responding to critiques of the study session format, last week mulled something new — a study session-subcommittee hybrid.

Councilman Rich Wagner wrapped a few folds of skin about the bones of the hybrid, which he said would incorporate perhaps a once-a-month study session with a refreshed committee system.

Reading from prepared notes, Wagner proposed a new health and human services committee and an economic development committee, reviving the municipal services committee and combining the old committees of community development and public works.

One of the major shortcoming of the study session format, Wagner said, is that the meetings don’t drill down to the same level of detail as the standing committees once did.

Also, Wagner said, the promise of everybody having in then room at the same time has not panned out the way he had hoped.

Answering a critique from opponents of the old committee system. Wagner said he hopes to change rules and procedures so individual interests and abilities trump seniority when the time comes to doling out committee chairmanships.

John Holman, the main firebrand of the change two years ago, has not wavered in his commitment.

“I don’t like standing committees,” Holman declared.

Holman said his biggest beef was that the three council members who served on each committee couldn’t talk to one another about city business outside of the meetings without the danger of falling afoul of the Open Public Meetings Act.

Holman added that the proposed change would have a terrible effect on staff, who, until 2014, had to invest a great deal of precious time preparing for those subcommittee meetings, which took them away from the work the City had actually hired them to do.

Returning to that system would cost the City, Holman said.

“We are pretty lean and efficient right now, and I think it’s going to get very cumbersome in a system like this,” Holman said.

Community Development and Public Works Director Kevin Snyder, careful to speak only for his department, said that the study session formats has indeed freed up staff to do what the City expects of them, and that preparing for what would amount to 14 meetings a month would warrant the hiring of another employee.

“I feel the study session system has worked well. Speaking for my department, we are much more efficient and more productive in getting the product out,” Snyder said.

Councilman Bill Peloza explained why he is no friend of the study-session format.

“We have a preponderance of support going to this type of format. And as far as the legality of committees talking to each other, I did the committee format for eight years, and we didn’t have any legal problems at all. Not one, not one in those eight years,” Peloza said.

Peloza argued as well that the standing committees by their nature delve deeper into the business of the city.

“The way that the (study session) agenda is put together is kind of like a crap shoot, whereas in the committee structure, we knew exactly what we were going to talk about. In Municipal Services, it was police, jail, animal control. And in community development and public works, it was water, sewer all of that stuff. But we never know what’s going to come on this agenda, never. And some of it is superfluous in my opinion,” Peloza said.

Claude DaCorsi called the idea of returning to standing committees that meet twice a month “overkill.”

Yolanda Trout-Manuel and Largo Wales also support returning to the standing committee system.

“We could really get information … and I am only as good as the information I get,” said Wales, referring to the old system.