This past Saturday, the El Paso Times published a guest column by Max Grossman criticizing the City Council vote on April 29 restricting public comment on agenda items to a fixed period in the morning.
He argues that this amendment to the Rules of Order removes public input from the critical moment before City Council votes on an item:
“Up until now, members of the public spoke to agenda items at the moment they came up for discussion and action, just after staff presentations and shortly before the vote, maximizing their impact. The media was present for important agenda items and often incorporated statements from public speakers into their reports.”
Tomorrow’s City Council regular agenda will begin with item 1, which includes a radical revision of the rules for public participation.
Now we learn that all public comment on agenda items will begin at 10:00 am, with speakers allotted three minutes each per agenda and no time limit on the number of speakers. That will be immediately followed by Public Comment on issues not listed on the agenda, which will be confined to a period of 60 minutes regardless of the number of speakers.
Please note that the item is sponsored by City Attorney Karla Nieman (such that no City Council representative needs to take responsibility for this abomination).
At tomorrow’s meeting we will be told that the change will be convenient for public speakers, who will no longer need to wait hours to share their comment.
But the net outcome will be to diminish significantly the impact of public comment. City Council reps will be free to opine and exchange views at the time an agenda item comes up for discussion and action without having to deal with the critical comments of their constituents (as that will have already happened hours earlier).
As Grossman suggests in his guest column, the timing of this amendment is strategic. Soon the City Council will have to vote for a major tax increase, find hundreds of millions of dollars for the totally unnecessary deck plaza, and then tell us there is no money left for streets!
That will make them about as popular as the bubonic plague.
The public will be permitted to complain during City Council meetings starting at 10:00am, with the media still not present.
Please write to the Mayor and City Council to urge them to vote “NAY” on item 1 and to instead vote in support of Rep. Limón’s item 24, which would maintain public comment as is!
mayor@elpasotexas.gov; district1@elpasotexas.gov; district2@elpasotexas.gov; district3@elpasotexas.gov; district4@elpasotexas.gov; district5@elpasotexas.gov; district6@elpasotexas.gov; district7@elpasotexas.gov; district8@elpasotexas.gov