The Hope For A Change In The Council Working Rules

                     PROPOSED COUNCIL WORKING RULES
 

The proposed changes to the council working rules is going to determine how effective this council will be for the coming year.  Councilor Garrison has done a great job condensing the current council working rules in this draft.  However, the major issue with the proposed and the current council working rules is people are required to speak on agenda items without first having the sponsor explain the reason for the change and to hear the discussion by councilors.  This requirement is a waste of time because if the people are allowed to speak after the agenda item has been briefed by the sponsor and discussed by the council and before the vote; there would be no need for Audience Participation.

In order to correct this situation, paragraph 6(C) the last sentence would have to read “The chair will allow questions from the public during this time however no debate or discussion of collateral issues shall be permitted.”  Councilors should encourage their constituents to participate in local government and be receptive to the people’s concerns and questions.   As the current and proposed council working rules are written; the right of the people to speak after understanding what the sponsor is trying to do have been eliminated.   This situation eliminates input from the people and can lead to all the facts not being presented prior to the council voting on an issue.  It is imperative that all the facts be presented in order for councilors to make meaningful decisions.

As a result of the current and proposed council working rules, the people have no way to get their questions answered.  The proposed council working rules has even gone as far as eliminating Audience Participation Response; not that they ever provided a response to our questions.  Since the proposed council working rules, has eliminated Audience Participation Response what is the value of having Audience Participation?  This small change to paragraph 6(C) will enable the people to get some answers and for councilors to hear their constituents concerns .

As it stands right now and with the proposed change, the people have no options in order to get questions and concerns answered but to submit Freedom of Access Acts (FOAA).  This program has put an additional workload of the town staff.  This could be reduced significantly or even eliminated by changing the council working rules to allow people to participate in agenda items as they are being discussed by the sponsor and council.  I never had a need for this program until the council working rules no longer allowed the Public to participate during agenda item discussions. 

Let’s start the year off right and begin the healing process for our community.  One simple change will restore local government back to the people.

Larry Fillmore