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GREENSBORO – The Greensboro Town Council approved a handful of changes to its agenda policy at its December 18 Town Council meeting. The biggest change is a shift in future regular meeting times from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
A revised agenda policy was presented by Town Manager Cindy Yost. Included in the policy was a shift of the public comment period closer to the end of the meetings, after department reports and other business. The public comment section was previously at this point until earlier this year, when it was moved to the beginning of the agenda. Many public commenters have since expressed a dislike for the new order of events, hence the proposal to move it back.
Councilmember Kim Ernest read a prepared statement on her thoughts about the agenda policy, including a suggestion to push the meeting time back to accommodate residents who work into the early evening. She originally made a motion to move the meeting time to 7 p.m., but no one stepped up to second the motion. She motioned again for a 6:30 p.m. start time, which was seconded by Councilperson Bob Harrison. “I’m not opposed to that,” he said, although he commented that it “seems like it’s always the same group of people that show up.” The motion was passed unanimously, meaning the Greensboro Town Council meetings will take place at 6:30 p.m. for the foreseeable future.
Other suggestions from Ernest were to strike the requirement for public commenters to state their name and address out loud, provide two public comment sections, and offer answers to public commenters if they have a question.
The Council agreed wth Ernest that publicly disclosing the commenters’ addresses could pose “a public safety concern”, and commenters writing their address down on the sign-up sheet would suffice. On the topic of having a public comment period at the beginning and end of the meetings, respectively, Ernest said it would “give residents an opportunity to comment on something they may want to have included in discussions on the agenda, as well as comment as to whether their inquiries had been adequately answered.” But Councilperson Pete Brelia said he doesn’t “see the need for two public comments.” Harrison agreed that there should be one public comment period, and it should be left at the end as the proposed agenda policy stated.
Ernest said during her statement that she believes “if a question is posed and an answer is readily available, it should be offered.” Mayor David Spencer agreed, but noted it could be seen as biased if he answered some residents and not others. He will continue to use his discretion when giving “simple answers to simple questions.”
Mayor Spencer had one proposed amendment to the proposed policy, which was to add language requesting that any presenters at future meetings keep their presentations to 10 minutes or less. After making the change to the meeting time and removing the stipulation that commenters must state their address at the podium, the Council voted to accept the revised agenda policy.
