A year ago, Rapid City council meetings were marathon affairs, frequently lasting until close to midnight.

But new rules limiting public comment and council discussion and a new mayor willing to actively keep people on-task have shaved about an hour off the twice-a-month meetings so people can get home in time to catch Jay Leno's monolog.

Alderman Malcom Chapman said several factors have helped to make meetings more efficient lately, including council and public acclimation to the format changes, holding council members accountable for how often they speak, and the mayor's willingness to actively lead meetings.

"I think it's made council members more prepared. You're only going to get so many times to speak to an item, so have what you want to say ready to go, make it meaningful, and then, get it out in your allotted time," Chapman said.

Through 2006, council meetings averaged 4.5 hours. Late that year, the council implemented new rules to prevent unlimited debate and back-and-forth discussion between the council and audience members.

The new rules limit public comment to three blocks of time. Individuals are limited to speaking for three minutes during each block, regardless of the number of items they want to talk about. At the same time, council members began complying with rules limiting their own comments; for example, only speaking on a subject twice, not speaking a second time until all members have a chance to speak, and limiting comments to five minutes total.

Over the past year, council meetings have averaged 3 hours, 50 minutes. During the first half of 2007, meetings averaged 4 hours, 15 minutes. Since July, meetings have averaged 3 and a half hours.

"Clearly, Mayor Hanks has run a good meeting," Alderman Bob Hurlbut said. "But I think the other component is most of us on the council have worked through those late meetings for long enough that I think we all have learned to shut our mouths, sometimes."

Hanks said he is only enforcing rules the council established for itself and that much of the credit should go to the council for policing itself. He said he told council members up front he intended to proactively keep meetings on track and asked them not to take offense when he tried to rein them in.

Hanks' style is to point out when someone begins to stray too far from an issue and ask them to come back to the point. He said the last thing he wants to do is interrupt or rule someone out of order.

"I think long and hard before I do that. I try to give enough latitude so they can have open and free discussion about the issues," he said. "There seems to be a new tone on the city council the last four or five months, and I'm very much encouraged by that."

Hurlbut said Hanks' style took some getting used to, but he is content with the way the mayor runs council meetings. Some may bristle a little when told to get back on point, but Hurlbut said it's good to get "gaveled" once in a while, because it helps resist the urge to grandstand.

"It's hard to resist weighing in on every issue because you do have thoughts on most every issue that comes up," he said. "But if you see the issues have been raised and arguments made by somebody else, and you can go along with it, that shortens things considerably."

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415 or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com