Council restarts comment period
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The Common Council will again allow live public comments during its monthly meetings even though meetings will continue to be held virtually for the time being.
Council President Andrea Shaut said in an email Monday afternoon that live comments was to resume beginning at the council’s Tuesday night meeting.
She said anyone interested in addressing the council must sign up with City Clerk Elisa Tinti by 2 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month, which is the day the council regularly meets. Each speaker will be called on and will address the council via phone access, Shaut said. She said access codes can be found on the city’s website (kingston-ny.gov) as part of the meeting’s agenda.
Anyone interested in speaking publicly at the meetings can sign up by emailing Tinti at emtinti@kingston-ny.gov. Written comments also can be emailed to Tinti or placed in the drop box at City Hall, 420 Broadway.
Shaut said the council also will continue to accept written com
ments until 4 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month.
The council suspended its usual 30-minute public speaking period when it moved its monthly meetings to a virtual format in April as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no indication yet of when in-person meetings might resume.
During a Common Council caucus Monday evening, Majority Leader Reynolds Scott-Childress said the format for public speaking would “be our normal pattern from here on out as long as we are in this COVID crisis and meeting virtually.”
“This requires a fair amount of coordination,” said Scott-Childress, D-Ward 3. “So we hope that members of the public will understand and will do their very best to let us know by 2 o’clock if they want to speak.”