THOUSAND OAKS : Council Limits Time for Public Speakers

With its weekly meetings routinely stretching past midnight, the Thousand Oaks City Council has limited the time a member of the public can address the panel.

But the councilman who spearheaded the change said Thursday that he is not satisfied with the new policy and will propose an alternate plan before the resolution goes into effect in December.

Councilman Andy Fox, who voted with the 3-2 majority Tuesday evening, said he thinks the new policy is too complicated and should be simplified.

“The city ought to have a written policy that everybody knows and everybody can refer to,” Fox said.

He said that a new policy is needed because meetings run too long and people interested in an issue often must stay up late to see what the council decides.

Under the plan approved this week, speakers will be given five minutes to make their points only when five or fewer people have signed up to speak on a specific topic.

When six to 10 speakers have signed up on a single issue, they will each be allotted four minutes. If there are 11 to 15 speakers, they get three minutes each. And when 16 to 20 speakers sign up, each will get two minutes.

Should more than 20 speakers want to address the council on a topic, the speakers will be limited to one minute each.

Mayor Jaime Zukowski and Councilwoman Elois Zeanah voted against the plan, blaming lengthy meetings more on council members themselves instead of lengthy public comment.

“There are some major hearings where something like this may be necessary,” Zukowski said. “But I don’t think it’s beneficial to adopt such a policy.”

Fox said he would propose an alternative policy within a few weeks.