MONROE — Monroe City Hall will open to the public earlier in the day and close earlier beginning on Sept. 3.

The Monroe Common Council moved forward with the move on the recommendation of City Administrator Phil Rath at its meeting Aug. 19. 

City Hall will open at 7 a.m. and close at 3:30 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays. City Hall will open at 7 a.m. and close at 11 a.m. on Fridays. The new hours are to start after the Labor Day holiday.

The move brings the hours of City Hall in-line with the hours of most of the departments of the City of Monroe.

“This gives us an opportunity to save money,” Rath said. “We can look at reducing hours at the end of the week and avoid overtime.”

Rath said staff training and development programs could be scheduled for Friday afternoons.

The measure brought discussion from the city council. Mayor Louis Armstrong said he didn’t want the measure to look like it was being done for the convenience of the city at the expense of accessibility to the public.

“We want to serve residents,” Armstrong said.

Rath said prior to making the suggestion he had City Hall employees audit traffic coming into city hall on Friday afternoons.

“We have looked at foot traffic ... and we really don’t see a lot unless water bills are due that day,” Rath said.

Rath said the reduction in hours at City Hall would be offset by more online services that the city is looking to offer in the future.

Alderwoman Kelly Hermanson said the move could be viewed negatively by the public and could lead to an inconvenience for city residents.

“Why Fridays? It could be Wednesday that’s a half-day, it could be Monday,” Hermanson said. “Could we do it as a split? Half of the staff working Friday morning and the other half working in the afternoon?”

Alderman Josh Binger said he didn’t necessarily mind city hall closing earlier on Friday, but would prefer to see City Hall open through the lunch hour.

Alderwoman Brooke Bauman said City Hall’s availability to the public was a main concern for everybody.

Rath said there are four salaried employees and three hourly employees at city hall. Bringing the hours of City Hall in-line with the hours worked by other departments would make the city more efficient overall, he said, and having Friday afternoons available for other programs would be good for city employees.

“In addition to training this would give us time to be able to decompress,” Rath said. “Sometimes it’s just good to have someone to share that experience with. There’s a lot of good people in Monroe and some who just like to make other people’s jobs more difficult.”

Rath said having Friday afternoons available to assess the work done in City Hall over the week would be a benefit.