December 13: Workshop on City Council Meeting Format

The public is invited to attend this workshop in City Council Chambers:

See also:

Video: Ordinance Committee Discusses Public Comment Periods (10/12/10)
Selected quotes from this discussion:

Maureen Carney, Ward 1 City Councilor: “The concerns that I’ve heard from our colleagues (councilors) is that when it gets to be 11 o’clock, it’s really hard to be conducting business…and this is important business that we have to deal with at 11 o’clock at night. Typically, ordinance changes and language…and I think it’s probably more appropriate for us to switch, and put the public comment at the, you know, I mean possibly putting public comment at the end of the meeting… What that would do is it would allow us to take care of serious business and then, you know…I’m not saying that people…what I’m saying is that we’d be able then to sit and listen to public comment at 10…it’s more inconvenient, obviously, for the public.”

Ken MItchell, Videographer: [speaking behind the camera] “…David’s suggestion is saying, that when there’s an issue that comes up, you can have public comment before that issue… What you’re going to do is get one person [who will] bring an issue up, and everyone else who was going to bring that issue up at least sees that it’s addressed [potentially saving time]. And the biggest problem is that these things don’t get addressed because people talk in public comment, two hours later you start deliberating on an issue, most councilors have an idea what they’re going to vote for or what they’re going to say and these people are ignored and people feel like they are not being represented.”

Online Public Hearings Resource Guide

December 8: Charter Review Public Forum