At his first City council meeting, newly elected Mayor Chris Miller suggested that the Council allow the public to provide input on agenda items at all meetings held by the Council. In addition, Miller suggested that public be allowed to comment as items are addressed by the Council as apposed to the current process were the public is only allowed to comment at the end of the meeting.
Currently the public is allowed to voice their opinions only at the Council’s monthly public workshop, which is held the Wednesday before the monthly Council meeting. It’s at the workshops that the Council actively debates items that they will vote on at the regular meeting.
The purpose of the proposed change to allow comments as agenda items are brought up by the council, according to Miller, was to allow people who attend for a specific item not to be forced to wait for the whole meeting to finish before voicing their concerns.
"Since votes are cast at the Monday Council meetings", Councilman Chris Tillman asked "what is the point in letting the public comment at the end of the meeting when most of the topics have already been voted on? We get so little participation as it is, adding in line-by-line public comment at our regular Monday meeting will not change the outcome of our votes."
Mayor Miller however disagreed. "At best all it does is open the door for an additional day for citizens to make any closing remarks to council. It gives them the greater chance to participate in their government."
Newly elected Councilman Jim McCarron pointed out that adding public comment to Monday Council meetings would be redundant because the Wednesday workshop was initially implemented specifically for public comment.
"In the past the Council would go straight into a Council meeting and do all their discussion and make a decision in one day," McCarron said. "We went to the current process to save time and prevent grandstanding from the public and debates between the public and council members."
Councilwoman Judith Fuller asked, "Do you want to be here until midnight? Because that is what will happen if we allow it."
Councilwoman Diane Foster pointed out that there are more ways than coming to a meeting for the public to get their opinion heard, including email, phone calls and writing letters. These alternative ways are important for those that can't make it to the physical meeting.
The City’s Planning and Zoning commission recently implemented a policy that gives the public an opportunity to speak after each agenda item, but limits how long someone can talk. They commission found it successful in speeding up the meetings while at the same time affording the public a chance to voice opinions in a timely fashion.
Miller’s suggestion however did not receive support from a majority of the Council, so the current process for receiving public comment on agenda items only at the Wednesday Council workshop stands.
