Letter: Return public comment to start of city meeting
Patricia Lowe-Parets
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 12/07/07
Editor: The St. Augustine City Commission recently voted 3-2 to discontinue the practice of allowing the public to speak at the beginning of each regular commission meeting, citing violation of the three-minute time allotment per speaker as the reason. The problem is not with the speakers but with the chair (mayor) who is responsible for controlling the meetings to assure the 30 minutes allotted for public discourse is not exceeded.
Their "solution" is to only allow the public to speak at the end of the regular agenda, which may make sense if you are a commissioner and you have already made up your mind and do not want to be confused by your constituents. But if the commissioners truly want to represent the people, they will welcome public discourse before taking action, even if it is an item that does not require public hearing.
Example: You read in Monday morning's St. Augustine Record that the commissioners will be voting on an issue that same afternoon, an issue about which you have some pertinent knowledge and/or concern. You can attend the meeting, but unless it is an advertised public hearing you cannot speak until the meeting's conclusion and the vote has already been taken.
A better solution? At regular business meetings the mayor should select the first seven or eight people who sign up to speak or select only one speaker per topic and then enforce the three-minute rule. Three minutes is enough time to state your case. If you want to elaborate, stay until the end of the meeting. At least, the commissioners will be aware of your concern prior to voting. By their votes, Commissioners Don Crichlow and George Gardner indicated they want to hear you. Hopefully the commission will reconsider this bad decision.
Patricia Lowe-Parets
St. Augustine
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