Council ward meetings may return by late March

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Bainbridge Island city councilmembers may start hosting meetings with their constituents again, after city leaders gave staff the green light to start carving out time on official schedules.

Ward meetings — informal, neighborhood-level gatherings designed for residents to discuss local issues directly with their representatives on city council — may return to regular programming for councilmembers as soon as late March. City leaders unanimously agreed to revive the meetings at the Feb. 24 council meeting.

“They’re fun! They’re fun for us to do, they’re really a cool way to engage with the community…I just love this sort of thing. The community has been asking for them as well,” said Councilmember Ashley Mathews.

Councilmember Lara Lant agreed.

“For anybody who campaigned in the last six or eight months, people want to hear from us; they want to hear from the city. Better yet, they want to talk to us and want to hear us talk back to them,” said Lant.

When they were a regular occurrence, ward meetings were held on Saturday mornings at indoor public event spaces such as community centers, meeting halls, school gymnasiums, or libraries. One councilmember would serve as a scribe to write down the issues community members brought forward.

Typically, three councilmembers would attend — both representatives for the ward and the at-large councilmember — in addition to at least one member of city staff, depending on availability. The meetings petered out in late 2024.

Councilmember Leslie Schneider suggested that the ward meetings become more of a conversation, rather than a town hall-style meeting. Perhaps councilmembers could be seated at a table with constituents, she said.