We can only guess as to why city officials kept a decision to shorten service hours at City Hall and the library that was made during a Nov. 9 closed session a secret for over a month. But we now know that decision was not made "as a cost saving measure," as originally claimed. According to city spokesperson Andrew Powers, the shorter hours will not save any more money. It is supposed to help city employees give better service. After the millions of dollars worth of cuts the city was unable to provide "consistently efficient service," Powers said. So, more hours meant less service and fewer hours means more service.

Earlier this week Thousand Oaks announced shorter hours for City Hall and the library that were decided without residents' knowledge or input. Hour cuts include City Hall closing every other Friday. The main library will open one hour later and close one hour earlier Monday through Thursday. The city's official response on its Web site was the hours were cut to save money. That turns out to not be exactly true. The reason given for it being decided during a closed session was because it was done as a part of "labor relations exception to the Brown Act."  The Brown Act is to protect the public from elected officials making decisions without the public's knowledge.