At lengthy meetings, public not the issue

The Fayetteville City Council is fast-tracking a rules change that would limit public comment to 3 minutes, instead of the current 5 minutes.

It is right to want to keep meetings shorter to make it easier to participate in our government and to respect the time of the staff and council. However, the bulk of the time spent in council meetings recently has been taken up by council members making long, sometimes off-topic speeches on relatively noncontroversial matters before a motion is even on the table.

Last week, council member Scott Berna introduced an item as a “walk-on” to the tentative agenda. He justified bypassing ordinary procedures by saying the topic was “fresh on his mind” after the previous meeting. The council’s own rules say that is not a justification for fast-tracking an item. Berna campaigned on wanting to make sure every voice was heard, so what’s the reason for the rush?

During that previous meeting, in discussion about accepting a grant to fund school resource officers, eight council members took 25% more time debating the topic than the 19 residents who were given 3 minutes each to speak. I agree with council member Mike Wiedekeher who offered that he wasn’t “as concerned with the public as I am with us. We had one item that we discussed as the council for an hour and a half before we opened it up for public comment. We had another item that we discussed for 2 hours before public comment.”

The council already has the ability to reduce the comment period as needed to keep meetings moving. Members have stated among their concerns the inconvenience of residents having to stay so late to make comments. Ironically, this resolution will be heard at the end of next week’s already full agenda, forcing residents who want to take their one opportunity to address the rules change to stay late.

Instead of repeatedly targeting public comments to shorten meetings, the council should follow its own rules and procedures, Robert’s Rules of Order and practice some self-discipline first. They don’t get paid enough for their very important, demanding job, so you’d think they would want to make the most of their time. This resolution should be voted down until they can come back with an evidence-based, well-thoughtout approach to handling the people’s business. ROB QUALLS

Fayetteville