Public comments take a back seat for city meetings

Public comments take a back seat for city meetings



KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 10/11/07


The public will now have to wait until the end of St. Augustine City Commission meetings to speak on general issues, an action that one commissioner says will "put the public on the back burner."

The commission voted this week to move the time slot for public comment from the beginning of the meeting to the end. Each person will now have five minutes to speak.

Commissioners Don Crichlow and George Gardner voted against the action. Gardner especially disagreed because, in 2003, he spearheaded an effort to allow the public to speak at the beginning of the meeting. Each person was given three minutes out of 20 minutes total, in addition to a public comment period at the end of the meeting.

Making people wait through a meeting, that lasts anywhere from two to six hours, will deter people from speaking to the commission, Gardner said.

"I think (public comment) has to be as easy as possible," he said. "We have to be as accessible as possible to the public."

Public comment has been pushed further down on meeting agendas for several months because droves of people have filled City Hall to speak on ordinances concerning adult entertainment.

Commissioner Errol Jones was uncomfortable with consistently modifying the agenda, which spurred the vote to push public comment to the back of meetings.

Mayor Joe Boles said the switch "makes sense."

"It's seems ludicrous for everybody to wait who has already gone through the steps and done everything to get on the agenda," Boles said. "Scheduled public hearings and items come before the non-scheduled issues."

Other local government bodies don't see it that way.

Public speakers are first on the agenda at St. Johns County Commission meetings, which can last the entire day, and the county school board offers public comment at the beginning and end of its meetings, which are roughly two hours long.

But Boles emphasizes that an unlimited amount of people will be allowed to speak at the end of City Commission meeting.

"We'll sit there until midnight if they want," Boles said. "Our goal is to accommodate the largest number of people."


Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/101107/news_news_036.shtml

© The St. Augustine Record