Legislature might alter rules about commenting
KINGSTON, N.Y. » The Ulster County Legislature is considering a rules change that would alter the way the public can address the body.
As proposed, the change would create two public comment periods during the Legislature’s monthly meetings. The first, at the beginning of each meeting, would be limited to speakers commenting on issues that are either on the meeting agenda or under consideration by legislative committees. The second would be at the end of the meeting and would be open to speakers who want to comment on any topic.
Historically, there has been only one public comment period, at the beginning of each meeting, and speakers were allowed to address legislators on any issue. But with the Legislature meeting remotely during the coronavirus pandemic, Chairman David Donaldson has limited public comment to agenda items only.
On Monday, Donaldson, D-Kingston, said the rules change would streamline the public comment process and enable those county residents who turn out regarding a particular item on the agenda to speak without having to sit through the comments of others not speaking about matters before the Legislature.
Donaldson said the proposed rules change was a compromise between legislators who wanted no change to rules governing public comments and those who wanted to limit comments to agenda items only.
“What’s happened is some people will talk about things the Legislature has no control over, and that ties up those other people who are waiting to talk about something that’s on the agenda,” the chairman said.
The proposed change “makes it more user-friendly for the people who are actually there for the agenda,” he said.
The Legislature is expected to take up that rules change, as well as a handful of other changes to the rules that govern the way the body operates, when it meets Tuesday evening.