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| Extended hours at City Hall help citizens, environment By JOHN MUNFORD Since January, Fayetteville City Hall has been open an extra hour and a half each day, extending its hours to run from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The “alternate work week” program has recently been lauded by The Clean Air Campaign since it allows employees to skip a day of commuting by working four 10-hour days instead of the usual eight hours five days a week. In the first three months of the program, the city served 1,996 citizens during the extra hour and a half city hall was open each day, said Brenda Hall, the city’s director of human resources. That showed the “tremendous response” the city has received, even though the new hours weren’t announced during the first few weeks of the program, Hall said. Employees are finding that they can get more work done during the extended hour periods of the day because it’s not as hectic as the rest of the day, Hall said. Although employees working the “alternate” schedule have an extra day off, they are still working 40-hour weeks, Hall added. A survey of employees also determined that they like having the extra day off to schedule appointments that they otherwise might have had to take time off for. When city hall previously closed at 5 p.m., there were inevitably some citizens who tried to get by at the last minute to conduct business, Hall said. “I think the program has been well-received by employees, citizens and customers,” Hall said. Clean Air Campaign officials site the city’s new program as a “model of success” because the program didn’t cost the city but is providing a benefit to the environment and to citizens through extended hours. The city provides carpool matching applications and smog prevention information in packages it gives newly hired employees also.
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