You'll notice a couple changes if you attend the next Portage City Council meeting.

Mayor Irvine Ferris explains the changes, starting with the range what can be asked during the question period.

"Previous to this, questions had to be referring to the agenda for that particular night. Citizens are now able to ask questions not necessarily related to that particular night's agenda. Another change would be the time of question period. Question period has taken place prior to Council, and it's being moved to the end of committee."

Ferris outlines why they decided to switch the committee meeting and question period.

"In the past, we've certainly have citizens that attend Committee meetings, but the only people that get to ask questions during (Committee) are Council (members). So right after Committee -- items have been discussed -- if there are questions from citizens, they're able to come up and use the question period for that."

Ferris adds, " It's worked fairly well so far, and this improvement should make it work even better."