City ends public comment on non-agenda items
Sunday, December 13, 2009 - 10:56 pm
By Larry Peirce
Banner-Press Editor
Nearly two years after being advised to do so, the City Council has stopped offering citizens the chance to speak at public meetings about topics that are not listed on the official meeting agenda.
For years, the monthly City Council meeting agenda had an item which stated: "Petitions, Communications and Citizens Concerns."
The item allowed citizens to raise any issue that was on their minds, with no advance knowledge available to city officials.
The item was not on the Dec. 9 meeting agenda. Mayor Dana Trowbridge briefly explained why it was removed after a citizen asked why the mayor did not open the floor for comments.
Trowbridge said the City was advised to discontinue the practice by City Attorney Jim Egr, attorneys for the League of Municipalities and the Nebraska State Attorney General's Office.
"We are going to start paying attention to our legal counsel," Trowbridge said. "We are going to drop that (item.) It doesn't bring us anything close to productive. . . It sets a tone for a meeting that is inappropriate for doing the business of the City of David City."
The item had allowed for some lengthy statements aimed at City Council members and the
Mayor over the past couple of years. Most recently in November, citizens delved into the discussion of a city employee's performance and suspension, despite Council and City Attorney requests that citizens not discuss personnel matters.
The public comment item also gave a forum for some citizens who warned the Council members that they might be removed from office because of the Council members' actions.
Trowbridge said citizens can speak during the Council discussion on each agenda item. When a motion is made at the Council table, public input is ended unless a Council member asks for more information.
Citizens also have the opportunity to attend two monthly subcommittee meetings, one for government issues, the other for utilities topics. The government subcommittee meets Tuesday; the utilities subcommittee meets on Monday. Both are at 5:30 p.m. The subcommittees replaced the former Committee of the Whole meetings that were held once a month.
Since subcommittee meetings do not have a quorum of the council present, citizens can speak more freely, and they are able to speak more than once about agenda items.
Public participation at meetings has been a topic of concern for more than a year.
In February 2008, the Council revised its public participation rules, limiting citizens to one chance to speak on each agenda item, unless the Council seeks more information. The rules were put in place because the council had difficulty reining in long public discussions while the Council was trying to conduct business.
To request a slot on the agenda, the Council requires citizens to file a form six days before the monthly meeting.
At that February 2008 meeting, City Administrator Joe Johnson said the "petitions and concerns" item was a "bombshell waiting to happen."
"Any citizen can come and say anything they wish at that time. But the other side is not notified at that time of a topic being discussed. That creates unfair advantage," Johnson said, adding that the League of Municipalities had been advising cities to end the practice.
Johnson said in 2008 that the League had been advising cities to discontinue open forums because a citizen could make comments deemed to be slanderous. By providing a forum for slanderous comments, the city could be open to legal problems, he said. The Council in 2008 left the public comment item on the agenda.
