August 6, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
The County Commission welcomes input from the public and now for the first time procedures have been established to provide time for public comment at regular County Commission meetings and “Committee of the Whole” workshops.
During the regular monthly meeting last Monday night, July 26 the commission adopted Rule 16F regarding Public Comments along with separate provisions as part of its new policies and procedures manual. Basically the Rule allows for persons to speak for three minutes at the end of the meeting, whether it be at a Regular Monthly Meeting or a “Committee of the Whole” meeting.
Fourth District Commissioner Janice Fish Stewart, who is also Chairman of the Commission’s Policies and Procedures Committee, said she wants the public to understand that this measure is not intended to “discourage” but to “encourage” public participation.
“The one thing we are striving for is transparency,” Commissioner Stewart told WJLE.
In addition to public comments, the policies and procedures, as adopted by the county commission, establishes rules on the general conduct of business before the county commission.
“Until now the County Commission has never had policies and procedures but now we have them in place to help us function better and more orderly as a commission”.
Commissioner Stewart said the committee determined that a rule should be adopted for a public comment period at County Commission meetings and modeled the county’s policy after what the Smithville Mayor and Aldermen and Board of Education already have in place for their meetings.
“Based on some recent events we found we did not have a policy that allowed citizens of the county to speak at the “Committee of the Whole” or at the County Commission meetings. We wanted something in place to make the County Commission and all the business of the county transparent to the citizens of the county and to make sure that at both meetings the public had an opportunity to come and speak about anything they wanted to speak about. During our search for a policy that was working for other areas we found that both the school board and the City of Smithville have a policy that allows residents to speak for a three minute period on any topic they would like to. I think with the school board they (public) have to give a two week notice ahead of time in order to get on the agenda. All we did was follow suit with what they do,” said Commissioner Stewart.
Unlike the school board’s policy, the public does not have to give a two week notice before addressing the county commission but there is a three minute time limit and public comment is reserved for the end of each meeting.
“We want DeKalb County citizens to know that we encourage and invite them to come out to our meetings to speak on anything that is of interest to them that they would like our help with,” said Commissioner Stewart.
The county commission typically has two meetings each month including the regular monthly session on the 4th Monday night of the month at 6:30 p.m. in the courthouse and a “Committee of the Whole” workshop formerly referred to as an “All-Committees” meeting which takes place on the Thursday evening at 6 p.m. prior to the Monday night regular meeting in the courthouse or any other day agreed upon by a majority vote of the County Commission.
Under Rule 16F, citizens of DeKalb County will be permitted to make public comments at the end of each regular monthly meeting of the “Committee of the Whole” or the “Regular Meeting” in accordance with the following:
*The person desiring to speak should rise, address the Chair, and when recognized, state their name and address.
*After providing the required information, the person shall be allowed to speak for a period of three (3) minutes on any matter of concern.
*All comments shall be directed to the Chair. The Chair may address questions to individual Commissioners, but in no event will the citizen be permitted to call names, question the integrity or motive of the individual Commissioners or the County Mayor or make personal or derogatory comments.
*The Committee of the Whole (County Commission) will not consider any item addressed during this time. Issues raised may be referred to appropriate persons for response at a later date or may be scheduled for discussion by the Committee at a later time.
*It is the responsibility of the Chair to maintain order at County Commission meetings.
*The Committee of the Whole (County Commission) may impose a more restrictive time limit if a large number of persons desire to speak. If a large number of speakers are present to address an issue, the Committee of the Whole (County Commission) may set a limit on the total time allowed for all speakers or ask that a Spokesman be named to speak on the issue.”