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Besides two new City Council members, Emmett Jordan and Silke Pope, there are a few other changes coming to the Greenbelt municipal building that the average Joe may not have considered, and it's leaving the meeting room a mess — literally.

In an effort to make room for two extra council members, the city has replaced seating, ordered more microphones and repurposed the dais tabletop to add two new plaques.

To increase the possibility of diversity stemming from a complaint by the NAACP and an investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union, the City Council voted in May to increase the number of council seats to seven.

"We're getting a new sound system partly because of the two new council members, but also since we've had so many complaints that people couldn't hear anything," said Beverly Palau, the city's public information and communications coordinator.

Palau noted that Greenbelt has received several complaints regarding the on-demand City Council meetings that stream through the city's Web site.

Between the last meeting of the 37th council on Oct. 26, and the first meeting of the new council Monday, the tabletop had to be refinished and the name plaques had to be updated — something that hadn't happened in several years.

"I think that the physical changes are going to work out," said Leta Mach, one of the incumbents. "We are making necessary changes so seven council members can meet and work together. I'm looking forward to working with them."

Re-elected Mayor Judith Davis said she is excited to begin working in the renovated meeting room with the new council.

"The fact that there are going to be new faces and changes in the council meeting room is energizing," Davis said. "They did a wonderful job refinishing."

The changes to the council meeting room have been fairly inexpensive.

Carolyn Clemens, assistant director of city public works, said the rough estimate of expenses for renovating is about $3,100.

"We not only updated the table, but we dressed it up a bit, because we haven't worked on it in years," Clemens said. "I expect the changes will last for many more years."

Another side effect of the larger council is seating. The chairs that the council has used in previous years were too large for the dais, so narrower seating was needed.

"We are also purchasing new chairs, since the current ones are 15 plus years old and starting to wear," City Manager Michael McLaughlin wrote in an e-mail.

E-mail Jordan Attebury at jattebury@gazette.net.