NORWICH – According to Mayor Joseph P. Maiurano, the city is going to attempt a new meeting schedule that should help cut down on the amount of comp time used by city employees.

The City of Norwich Common Council held its organizational meeting at noon Jan. 1, and after swearing in the newly-elected officials and appointing committee members, the mayor explained where and when the meetings would take place.

“The reason we are reorganizing the meetings is actually to be more streamlined as a city,” Maiurano said in a previous meeting.

The new city schedule will eliminate the Common Council work session, generally held at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month. Maiurano explained that the primary reason for this meeting was to develop the agenda for the regular council meeting, a job which could be accomplished during committee meetings.

“There are a number of meetings which require city employees to attend. It takes up many nights and we’re trying to cut down on the time they need to go to night meetings,” Maiurano said he explained that due to the use of comp time, each hour department heads and city employees spend at meetings actually accounts for two and a half hours of regular work.

Additionally, the mayor explained that Finance/Personnel committee meetings and Public Works /Public Safety meetings – which were previously held once a month at 6 p.m. – would now be held at 7:30 a.m. instead.