Officials cut public comment time

From the BCCT. The Emperor's three minute egg timer has been passed to a new group of elected officials.

A time rule is reasonable. No member of the public can expect to monopolize ten or fifteen minutes of air time. Multiply that out for each citizen in attendance and the meetings will adjourn next week, just in time for the next one to begin.

Being reasonable is the key. Most people can make their point in three minutes. What's the harm in letting some go over into [gasp] four to even [horror of horrors] FIVE minutes occasionally, especially if they are making fair arguments. The bedrock of the republic will not split asunder.

Having Betty Crocker stand there with her cake timer to promptly whack your hands with a wooden spoon at the stroke of three minutes is overboard.

No. That was not a suggestion. Marlys cannot use the petty cash fund for a shopping trip to Oxford Valley Mall. Williams-Sonoma is off limits.

How the three minutes is used is more important. At most elected board meetings I've seen from sewer commissions to the United States Senate, the elected officials are studiously and intently...not listening. They are off on their latest diversion, well meaning or not, important or not. They leave the unmistakable impression that they do not care what the voters have to say.

Except, of course, on one day, Election Day.

Officials cut public comment time
The supervisors’ Sept. 24 meeting ended at 10:50 p.m., more than two hours earlier than the Sept. 10 meeting, which ended at 1:33 a.m.
By DANNY ADLER

If you want to address public officials in Northampton, you better make your point quick.

Antonio Albano, chairman of the Northampton Bucks County Municipal Authority, invoked a three-minute rule for public comment Wednesday night, a week after supervisors Chairman George Komelasky did the same to avoid meetings lasting into the wee hours of the morning.

Both chairmen denied residents’ requests to cede their time to other people who wanting to speak longer.

Komelasky, a Republican, said some residents have used the “Citizens Concerns” portion of its meetings to engage in a dialogue with the board, and make statements and accusations “that aren’t citizens’ concerns.”

Meetings over the past few months have grown tense with heckling, insults, interruptions and board members raising their voices toward each other and residents. Much of the discussion has spawned from the controversial multimillion-dollar western end sewer project, which calls for about 300 residences and an industrial park to be hooked up to public sewers. The project could cost homeowners at least $20,000 apiece.

But the three-minute limit could be seen as successful. The supervisors’ Sept. 24 meeting ended at 10:50 p.m. That was more than two hours earlier than the board’s Sept. 10 meeting ended, at 1:33 a.m. Sept. 11. Eight of the supervisors 15 meetings this year ended after 11 p.m.; five of those meetings lasted at least until 12:20 a.m.

“This is in the best interest of the township,” Komelasky said. He later added “We’re trying to get business done for the township,” noting that some meetings didn’t get past public comment until hours into the session.

Albano, of the water and sewer board, said three minutes is adequate time for residents to voice their concerns. He said: “The three-minute rule is something that I’ve adopted from observing Council Rock School District board meetings” which leads to a “reasonable hour for adjournment.”

Resident Christine Mecutchen understands that the board can’t let people grandstand for an hour, but said the newly imposed time limit restricts freedom of speech and is “an extreme reaction to one late meeting.” She said: “It’s beyond outrageous. … We’re allowed to have a say in what’s occurring.”

Democratic Supervisor Jim Cunningham said a time limit “in and of itself is not an unreasonable thing,” but the board shouldn’t have changed the rules in mid-stream, he said.

Cunningham said the supervisors should have adopted those rules at the board’s reorganization meeting at the beginning of the year, not now. He also said details need to be worked out, such as can residents yield their time to another person? Who is the timekeeper?

“A set of guidelines needs be formally adopted by the board,” Cunningham said. “On the face of it, I don’t think it’s wholly unreasonable to do it.”

While possibly irritating to those who want to speak, numerous Bucks County municipalities have established time restrictions and regulations regarding public comment.

A Pennsylvania Governor’s Center for Local Government Services publication titled “Open Meetings/Open Records” states, “A governing body may still adopt reasonable rules for the comment period. … A time limit may also be placed on an individual’s presentation and any resulting discussion.”