Next year, the Sumter County Board of Commissioners will shift its meetings to 7 p.m. instead of the current meeting time of 5 p.m.
The change will begin at the Jan. 12 meeting.
Regular meetings will continue on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at The Villages Everglades Recreation Center at Marsh Bend Trail and Warm Springs Avenue while workshop meetings will continue on the third Tuesday of each month at the county service center near Pinellas Plaza.
Quasi-judicial hearings, which often involve zoning cases, will be scheduled at 7:30 p.m. instead of 5:30 p.m.
Commissioners voted Tuesday to make the changes after considering two other options.
The first rejected option was to make no change while the second was to change to the later meeting time and hold the second monthly meetings at the Sumter County Fairgrounds near Bushnell.
At a workshop meeting last week, newly elected commissioners advocated for the later meeting times, saying they are more convenient and would allow more people to attend.
“When you have meeting times that people cannot attend, it signals the fact that they’re not welcome,” said Commissioner Gary Search.
Longtime Commissioner Doug Gilpin opposed the time change.
“I just think it’s change for change’s sake,” he said. “The fact is when people have issues, they come.”
Instead of a time change, Gilpin suggested the county return to an earlier system of having one meeting a month at the historic county courtroom in Bushnell or another location outside The Villages. He said the courtroom would provide security that is missing at the recreation center.
But newly elected Commissioner Craig Estep said the recreation center is centrally located.
“I could not necessarily support splitting the meetings again,” he said.