Council public comment

By Jon Li

The Mayor Pro Tem is proposing that city council meeting public comment be limited to a half hour at the beginning of the meeting, and time given at the end of the meeting for public comment. That is the way it is done at most city councils around the country.

The Davis community activists have demanded the right to longer time for public comment. I believe that recent city council meeting experience is that a few activists have tried to take over the agenda of the meeting during public comment, and on many occasions attempted to derail the council from its meeting agenda purpose.

What is public comment for? Roberta Millstein claimed "Let's recall what general public comment is for: 1) it's for members of the community who want to speak to items on the agenda, but can't stay late, and 2) it's for members of the community to speak to items that are not on the agenda. "

I think you forgot what the purpose of public comment is. Then we can talk about what it is for, and then we can talk about the more effective approaches to setting ground rules to achieve identified goals.

Our system of government is described as a "representative democracy." What that has meant, unconditionally in our entire country since the Constitution was ratified in 1789, is the right for citizens to elect our representatives who make the decisions.

One of the long established quirks of our form of government is that most bodies are required by their governing laws to hold a period of public comment at some point in time during the meeting, and to allow for public comments before a particular decision is reached. How a city does that varies.

For example, during the Davis Downtown "participatory design workshop" the city's high paid outside consultants mouthed what the city staff told them to say for three hours and fifty minutes, and the public was allowed to speak for ten minutes. That is Davis. The city council has so little power that the staff does all the talking, and then the council does whatever the staff says. It doesn't matter at all what is said during public comment with this city staff.

I advocate not more than 30 minutes for public comment at prime time, limited to one minute per person, with every opportunity for written background by email or letter. And then allow public comments at the end of the meeting.

The governing body does not meet for the convenience or pleasure of the public. It meets to get the public's work done. During the past two years, the public comment period has disrupted the council. That needs to stop. People who address the council have many other ways to communicate in the city's public decision making process. The people who want more time want their agenda, because they don't agree with the city council. The purpose of the meeting is for the city council to move the city forward, and the public should be a positive part of that process. Too often in Davis, the disruption has become the only process, at great expense to everyone except the proud disrupters. If it takes more than a minute, it is too complicated.