Monday, May 08, 2006

Mailbag: " Brkmn "thinks current rules provide plenty of public participation; Wonders how rule change would improve matters?

(ed. note. This comment was from another post but I have posted it separately for visibility. This issue will be discussed at Finance tonight and tomorrow night at Common Council.)

Evansville already has very broad and liberal public-participation rules for common council meetings. They are:

Sec. 2-33(a)4 : "Persons present who wish to appear on any matter will be permitted to speak at the discretion of the presiding officer at this time." [This is the point in the agenda immediately agfter the approval of the minutes.]

Sec. 2-33(a)5 : "Report of committees. Persons present who wish to appear on any matter contained in a committee report may appear at this time." [Ordinance approvals generally are conducted as part of committee reports.]

Sec. 2-71(3) : "Citizens addressing the council. No person other than a member shall address the council, except under section 2-33(a)(4) and (5), and except that citizens may address the council with the permission of the presiding officer as to matters which are being considered by the council at the time."

One wonders how the proposed amendment improves matters.

Publish this comment.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:54 PM

    I agree if they follow this I don't think this will improve a thing. I was laughing as I was reading it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:35 PM

    after reading your thoughts on the beer permit watchin you sure do not do a good job of interpeting

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:37 PM

    Everyone interpets in differently. That does not make watchin opinion wrong any more than it makes your opinion wrong, anony.......

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous5:51 PM

    I think Anony must not be real secure in their own ' interpetation' of things either or they would not post ' anony'. I think the beer issue was a bit much. I think anyone who has ever been to any city council or planning commission meeting can tell you there is room for improvement ALOT of improvement. But things are not going to happen over night. It looks and sounds like they are taking steps, be it baby steps to make changes. However what I read in this post does not sound like they quite get it, of how to go about making those changes.

    ReplyDelete