Public Comment Closer to Reality

Thursday Night, May 15th, was. a meeting of the Rules Committee for the Putnam County Legislature. On the agenda was further discussion of the potential codification of public comment at legislative meetings. District 7 Legislator Dan Birmingham chairs the committee, joined by District 5 Legislator Greg Ellner and District 3 Legislator Bill Gouldman.

How We Got Here

February

Back in February District 9 Legislator Erin Crowley introduced a resolution that would codify public speaking at Legislative committee meetings, as well as FULL Legislature meetings. Currently, while public comment does take place at committee meetings, it is not codified and is at the discretion of the committee chair.

Additionally, at Full meetings, public comment is again not guaranteed and only occurs at the very end of a meeting after all of the votes have been taken, rendering the voice of the pubic toothless to influence their representatives.

On February 19th, I first spoke to the legislature on my position on this. You can view my comments from that meeting here:

March

Then in March, at the full legislative meeting, after this resolution had been passed out committee, it was removed from the agenda. When it came time for that agenda item, Legislator Paul Jonke of District 6 made a motion to remove it entirely from the agenda. District 5 Legislator seconded that motion.

During the public comment section of the agenda, at the very end, I rose to speak. Because it had been removed from the agenda, I was technically not allowed to speak on it. However, I would not be deterred, and I reminded the legislators how important codification of the rights of the public is, and that it is the very foundation of our republic. You can view my full comments here:

On March 18th, this was again discussed in the Rules committee. There, frustration was palpable my many, including myself, that we were having yet more discussion after this was passed out of committee, and at the unfortunate fact this was removed from the full legislative agenda despite that. Legislators contended this had become nothing more than a campaign issue, to which I pushed back strongly. View my full comments here:

April

This was left entirely off of the Rules committee agenda in April, and it was also not brought to the full legislative meeting either.

May

The May 15th Rules committee meeting was the first time this month it was addressed for discussion, not a vote. Legislator Dan Birmingham introduced a revised resolution that he considered a compromise. After reviewing the resolution, I came to the conclusion that this was in fact a fair resolution to address Public Speaking.

This revised resolution included codified public speaking rights at committee meetings, full legislative meetings in the event an agenda item bypassed committees, and other business.

What it did not address was “Special Full Legislative” meetings, which legally are considered different than full legislative meetings. Additionally, it did not address specific parameters on time limits or how to address “Other Business”.

What I appreciated was that I was given the opportunity to address these concerns directly to the Legislature, and the legislature as a whole conducted themselves in a way that allowed business to get done on behalf of the people, a noticeable difference from previous meetings.

Additionally, I was pleased that they had moved passed whether or not this should be codified, and began to focus on how. View my full comments, and my full back and forth with legislators here:

At the end of the day it was great to see the legislators have inspired conversation and debate in a way that moved the people’s business along, and that they engaged the public (me) in good faith discussion that allowed for consideration of items that they had not previously accounted for. If the timeline holds, this should be reintroduced for a committee vote in June, bringing it to the full legislature in July for a final vote.