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The University of California tonight will hold the first of six public meetings to get input on potential sites for a proposed second campus of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which the university manages. 

Most of the lab's 4,200 employees work at its main site in the Berkeley hills, but about 20 percent of them work at leased facilities that are dispersed around the East Bay. 

The proposed campus is an effort to consolidate those facilities and provide the lab with long-term cost savings. 

More than 20 cities and developers proposed ideas for a second campus, and university officials narrowed them down to six finalists. 

Those sites are Alameda Point, in Alameda; Berkeley Aquatic Park West, in Berkeley; Brooklyn Basin, in Oakland; properties in Emeryville and West Berkeley that are currently occupied by the lab; Golden Gate Fields, which straddles the Berkeley-Albany border; and Richmond Field Station, a site currently owned by the university. 

University officials said they hope to make a decision on their preferred site and move researchers into the new site by mid-2016. 

The public meetings will involve presentations about the lab from lab representatives, information on potential site developments and comments from local officials. 

Members of the public and community organizations are invited to attend and comment. 

The first meeting will concern the Alameda Point site and will be held at the Auctions by the Bay Theater at 2700 Saratoga St. in Alameda from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

The hearing for the Richmond Field Station will be held on July 21, the Brooklyn Basin proposal will be discussed on July 27, the Golden Gate Fields site will have a hearing on Aug. 3, Aquatic Park West will have its hearing on Aug. 4, and the properties in Emeryville and West Berkeley will be the subject of the final hearing on Aug. 8.