Council changes comment policy
Ben Godar
After years of tinkering with when and how the public may address the
City Council, council members voted Tuesday to again change the
structure of the oral communications periods.
On a 3-2 vote, the council opted to expand the second period of
oral communications, during which speakers can discuss any item under
the jurisdiction of the council, from one minute to two minutes. The
proposal will also shorten the final period, which follows the same
subject restrictions, from three minutes to two minutes. As in the
current policy, citizens who speak during the earlier comment period
would not be allowed to speak during the final period.
Councilman Todd Campbell said giving people the choice of two
minutes to speak either before or after the agenda would provide
balance.
“I think it’s a very elegant proposal,” he said.
Dave Golonski, the councilman who requested the policy be
reviewed, supported a different plan, which would have grouped those
speaking on agenda items and non-agenda items into the same period,
with a five-minute time limit.
Tuesday’s split vote was far from the first time council members
have been conflicted on the structure of oral communications.
According to a report prepared by City Atty. Dennis Barlow, the
council has considered revisions to the oral communications policy 15
times since 1988. In that time, the number of communication periods
has grown from one to four, with various time and subject limits
assigned to each period.
“The parameters of oral communications are limited only by the
Brown Act and the imagination,” Barlow said.
While he voted in favor of changing the existing policy,
councilman Jef Vander Borght voiced skepticism that the council would
ever find the perfect policy.
“Since 1975 we’ve gone through 16 iterations -- that ought to tell
us something,” he said.