DON’T CHILL PUBLIC COMMENTS
Got a matter of grave importance to bring before the Hamilton County Commission? Hope it can wait a week.
A week’s delay for citizens to speak to commissioners on items not on their agenda is part of a resolution that they are expected to vote on today. We’d like to see them table the resolution and tweak it.
We understand the tenor of the resolution. We’ve sat through meetings or watched online as individuals have wasted the commissioners’ time with matters over which they have no sway, issues not currently before the body or harangues that have nothing to do with policy they oversee.
But we believe there are times when county matters that have not bubbled up on the commissioners’ agenda, public malfeasance they may not be aware of, or, heaven forbid, an out-of-the-box idea that may help them on a matter being considered shouldn’t wait a week.
Could they be handled by a call to a county commissioner or a county department, or an email to either? Maybe, if they can get a call back, but neither has the immediacy and boldness of speaking directly to your county lawmakers.
Is there a perfect alternative? Probably not, but perhaps registration with an on-site staffer 15 minutes before the meeting starts, with the speaker providing name, address and subject to be addressed, might be a solution. The sheet with speakers’ information then could be given to the commission chair, who would, at the end of the meeting, call on each speaker individually.
If the chair believes the matter is not one that should come before the commission, or could be handled in a certain county department, the speaker could be told so. If neither of those are feasible, the chair then could recite the rules for comments and allow each speaker a set time to address the body.
The resolution to be considered by commissioners today also forbids speakers from singling out or verbally attacking commission members, county employees or their family members. That’s certainly reasonable, and we believe it could be added to the rules that are read to speakers when they are called forward.
We also like the proposal in the resolution that commissioners must present matters not on the meeting agenda to the chair within 48 hours of the meeting for the chair’s approval to be included in the meeting. Too often, last-minute items are added to the commission’s agenda, and neither the public nor all commissioners likely have had a chance to vet the information before it is presented.
Commission Chairman Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, told this newspaper that the public already has had an opportunity — by state law — to comment on each resolution on the agenda at the time the resolution came before the commission, so any comments on agenda items at the end of the meeting aren’t appropriate. That’s fair, but we also believe that’s even more reason not to impose a mandatory week’s notification for other speakers.
The comments were “not designed as a dialogue,” he said, “and it was becoming a dialogue.”
We kind of thought that’s what our elected leaders always should be having with their constituents, but we know where he’s coming from.
Nevertheless, we feel such a rule would have a chilling effect on public speech. Yes, public comment times must have rules, be orderly and not be wasteful of everyone’s time, but the availability and immediacy of such comments is important. They allow commissioners to think on their feet (or at least in their chairs) and be responsive to a constituent with a concern. The weekahead rule, it seems to us, would allow, instead, for pat, rote and ultimately unsatisfying answers.
We also think it’s a bit disingenuous to ask for the week’s notification when each commissioner is given an opportunity weekly — just before the public is invited forward — to make an announcement. Those specific announcements, which are not on any agenda, range from the mundane (meetings, congratulations, reminders) to opinions to occasional passive aggressive attacks on other commissioners.
So what’s good for the commissioners ought to be what’s good (within reason) for the public.
Tabling the resolution — which, again, does have some needed tenets — today would offer time for commissioners to reconsider the week-ahead proposal. And, who knows, maybe someone during the public comment period today may have an even better solution on public comments from what commissioners have considered.