This year, Commissioner Pittman and Councilman Huett reinforced that technically, they do not have to “Allow” any input or questions from the public. They then identified that citizens may be “allowed” to ask to be placed on the agenda. Approving this request would be at the discretion of the commissioners/council.

Commissioner Pittman did prevent a citizen (Sherrie Mitchell) , who was on the agenda, from asking a question. He also did not allow Sherrie to ask a question while allowing someone else to ask their question.

The council “allows” citizens to ask questions at the start of their meeting BEFORE any of the issues were discussed. This policy is being reconsidered. At their last meeting, this policy was ignored as citizens were “allowed” to ask questions regarding an issue that was on the agenda.

The “2-minute limit” is arbitrary.

Since 2016, I’ve attended over 100 government meetings – citizens asking questions on a topic has never been an issue. There have been a few meetings where things could get a little passionate but a call for order was respected.

Why the recent change in threatening to restrict citizen input is interesting. What’s the problem?