Amarillo City Councilmembers agreed to change the policy for public comment signup during a work session meeting on Tuesday.
During Tuesday's work session before the Amarillo City Council meeting, Councilmembers agreed to change the signup time for public comment from its current policy. Previously, residents could sign up to speak at the next week's meeting on midnight of Wednesday morning. Councilmembers agreed to change the policy, now requiring residents to sign up to speak on Monday, the week of the meeting.
While Mayor Ginger Nelson encouraged Councilmembers to consider changing the policy, not all of the City Council was completely supportive. Councilmember Elaine Hays said during the conversation over public comment that she is concerned about creating more rules for issues that do not exist.
"I want to make sure that we aren't looking for solutions for problems that don't exist," Hays said during conversation over changing the public comment rules.
City manager Jared Miller weighed in during the discussion, stating that the cities for which he has previously served as city manager, some did not offer public comment at all, but all of the cities required signup for public comment on the day of. Miller also went on to say that he does not feel that shorting the window for signup would be an issue.
"That's not exhaustive," Miller said. "I don't see any reason that Monday would be substantially different than Tuesday."
Councilmember Eddy Sauer promoted the idea of changing the signup period, citing that he wants residents to have the opportunity to speak on items that are scheduled for that week's agenda and that they may not have a chance if comment signup starts a week ahead of time.
"I believe that those who want to talk about an item on the agenda...there needs to be a chance for them to speak," Sauer said.
In the end, Nelson suggested to Council that signup should begin at 8am on Monday, a day before the meeting, to which Councilmembers agreed. Nelson stated that the policy would be a test to see if it would become a "permanent" policy in the future.
Also, during Tuesday's work session, Councilmembers discussed limiting the amount of time that residents can speak from three minutes down to two minutes. Nelson stated that that policy is in effect in some cities and that she would like Councilmembers to consider it. Nelson stated that she discussed the policy, along with other public comment policies across the state, in an effort to find a balance for Amarillo's public comment.
"It's not about what one individual feels comfortable with," Nelson said, regarding finding a policy that would strike the right balance for Amarillo City Council public comment.
At least one Councilmember, Howard Smith, immediately took issue with the suggest policy, stating that he feels that it could limit the ability for residents to speak, which is not something that he would support.
"I want to lean toward hearing what people have to say," Smith said.
Councilmember Elaine Hays also disagreed with the proposed policy, stating that she believes it would hurt residents' ability to complete thoughts for the City Council.
"It's hard to get a complete thought out in two minutes," Hays said.
No final decision was made on shortening time for public comment during Tuesday's work session. The current policy, allowing residents three minutes to speak at the podium during public comment, was first unveiled in 2010 and has not been changed since.
Photo by Nelson Campaign