The why behind the 5:01 meeting start time

You get off work, punch the time clock and onto the next adventure you go.

But if you want to get to that town council meeting on time, you’d better be quick. Really quick. Local governments across the state have a habit of scheduling their meetings for 5:01 p.m. Unless you snuck into the universe of Gene Roddenberry’s imagination and made off with a transporter, it’s unlikely you’ll get to town hall in time for the meeting.

Longboat Key’s two public hearings to pass the next fiscal year budget are scheduled for 5:01 p.m. The city of Bradenton has its budget hearing scheduled for 5:01. The city of Tampa has 5:01 listed as the start time for multiple meetings including a public hearing on the budget and a special called meeting for future land uses in the city’s comprehensive plan. Broward County and Orange County also hold certain meetings at 5:01.

But why 5:01? Why not 5? The simple answer is to abide by state law.

“The local governing body shall hold two advertised public hearings on the proposed ordinance. At least one hearing shall be held after 5 p.m. on a weekday, unless the local governing body, by a majority plus one vote, elects to conduct that hearing at another time of day,” reads Florida Statute 166.041(c)2.a 

The town’s charter specifies that public hearings abide by that statute, which is why the town has scheduled meetings at 5:01 p.m., says town clerk Trish Shinkle. Town commission votes on the schedule for meetings.

“Florida Statutes require that budget hearings have to start after 5:00 p.m., hence the 5:01 p.m. start time to comply with statutes,” Shinkle wrote. “It was intended to allow time for the working public to attend the hearings, but hard to attend when you get off work at 5 and are a distance from the hearing locations.”

Longboat Key’s archive of past meetings which goes back to 2019, shows that all budget hearings have started at 5:01 for the past six years. Before that, the town went back and forth. In 1997, the budget hearing was scheduled for 5:01. In 2009 and 2010, the hearings were held at 7. From 2011 through 2016, one hearing was held at 5:01 and the other at 7 (two public hearings for the budget are held each year). In 2017, the hearings were held at 5:01 only, which has remained the norm since.

Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier said the meetings are held after 5 to comply with state law and the reason why 5:01 was picked was so the meetings wouldn't run late. Schneier said the September public hearings don't have much community involvement because the budget is moreso formed earlier in the year. Offsite budget retreat meetings drew public attendance and input back in March, April, May and June.

“By (September), virtually anyone who has anything to say has said it, and usually by the end of June we have the budget locked in,” Schneier said. “So for good or for bad, these final meetings that we have are just stamping things in that are done months in advance. We have virtually no people that come to these meetings.”

Michael Wolf, eminent scholar chair in local government for the University of Florida, said scheduling meetings for 5:01 allows the town to abide by the letter of the law, but may miss the point of why the law was passed in the first place. He says most municipalities and counties schedule meetings that are required to be after 5 p.m. at 7, or 5:30. He said he had not heard of meetings scheduled at 5:01 before being contacted by the Observer.

“The idea behind the statute was not to make the meeting at 5:01,” Wolf said. “The idea was to make it after normal business hours, and when you make it at 5:01, you’re not giving people working normal business hours time to get to the meeting. When you make it at 5:01, I don’t know what the intent is, but I know the effect. The effect is you’re going to reduce the amount of public participation.”

This article has been updated.