Moving Public Comments Ahead of Votes “Seems More Time Consuming” Commissioner Simmons Says

A proposal to hear public comments on agenda items before votes are cast in Bulloch County Commission meetings was met with minimal enthusiasm Monday morning.

The initiative, brought forth by Commissioner Nick Newkirk, seeks to give the public the opportunity to speak on agenda items slated for a vote before commissioners cast those votes. The proposal is one that Newkirk campaigned on and has been advocating for since taking office in January.

Ahead of the discussion by commissioners, Newkirk made a motion to amend the agenda for New Business and allow the public to speak on those particular agenda items for the day. It was seconded by Commissioner Ray Davis, but failed in a vote of 2-4 with no discussion and Commissioners Simmons, Mosley, Conner, and Rushing opposing.

Immediately after the failed motion, Newkirk spoke on why he asked that the item be placed on the agenda for consideration. He stated that he wanted to move ‘public comment’ to a position before commissioners voted on particular matters, making it a permanent change to the county ordinance which currently requires the public to be heard after all votes are cast by commissioners.

County Attorney Jeff Akins said the matter was for discussion only Monday because the proposed changes to the ordinance were only draft notes. He said if it is the desire of the commissioner to amend the ordinances, he would look to have it prepared for the next meeting, noting that it would behoove commissioners to clean up other parts of the ordinance as well as some other relevant parts are outdated and not adhered to in practice.

Newkirk cited the practice in the City of Statesboro where the public is given an opportunity to speak at the beginning of the meeting, before votes are cast, so they can speak specifically to agenda items and have their voices heard. Then, at the end of the meeting, public comment is again held for general items that may be of concern but were not on the agenda. Comments ahead of voting would be exclusive to agenda items and would be capped at three minutes.

The practice of hearing from the public prior to voting is not new. Commissioners used to have ‘public comments’ at the beginning of the meetings, as evidenced by previous meeting agendas and corresponding meeting minutes. Examples include:

In fact, the public comments portion of the meeting were not moved to the end of the meeting until the second meeting in February 2023.

Commissioner Rushing offered his opinion saying, “That is something to look at. If you got a hot topic and you got 100 people that sign up, you’re looking at a 5 hour meeting to hear from each one of them. The agenda goes out on Thursday, Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday and Monday to get in touch with your commissioners or the county staff. And then we have public comment at the end.”

Commissioner Anthony Simmons said he agreed with Rushing. “It seems like it’s more time consuming than anything else.”

Chairman David Bennett explained that the movement of the agenda item does not necessarily mean meetings will be longer. “The inverse to this, though, you can come up and speak to a specific topic, but as it is now, they can just sign up in the general public comments and speak, they can speak for five minutes. They can still come up and speak and they will have five minutes.”

Rushing asked if the comments at the beginning of the agenda would replace the public comments at the end of the agenda. Bennett replied that his understanding of the intent of the change is to allow people to speak to a specific agenda item and those same people would not speak to it again in public comments.

Attorney Akins said the proposal would not eliminate public comments at the end. He said the ordinance could reflect the desire of commissioners to keep public comments at the end from addressing agenda items a second time.

“Well, like you said, you’ve got to draft it for us to look at,” Rushing said.

Commissioner Ray Davis asked if they could limit the number of speakers on an agenda item to one or two. “If you had 50 people willing to speak, there’s gonna be some repetition. If you limit the number of speakers, that’s going to limit the number…the time it’s going to take.”

Akins said limitations are permissible. He asked if Commissioners wanted to limit the number of speakers to two people per agenda item.

Chairman Bennett shared his opinion, saying “Yes, you’re going to get some repetition and I think on most of these issues, you’re not going to have a lot of people that are going to speak on them. I think most of the issues we have today, if we had public comments, most people would not have anything to say about it. I think you’re going to have some hot topics that people are going to want to come up and speak about…you may have some repetition.”

Akins said a draft won’t be set in stone and commissioners can amend the working draft once he puts it together for their consideration. “One approach may be not to have a limitation unless it becomes a problem. If you have a meeting where 50 people sign up, you might want to address it. Or maybe 10 people.”

Commissioner Simmons asked Akins if one of the options would be to ‘just leave it like it is,’ which Akins confirmed. Simmons also asked if the discussion could be moved to the morning meeting instead of the next meeting (on February 4) because evening meetings are already long.

Commissioner Toby Conner suggested moving all public comments to the beginning of the meeting. “You’re gonna hear it one way or another.”

No action was taken and County Attorney Jeff Akins said he would have a draft prepared for the second meeting in February, which is scheduled for Tuesday, February 18 at 8:30 A.M.

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Jessica Szilagyi

Jessica Szilagyi is Publisher of TGV News. She focuses primarily on state and local politics as well as issues in law enforcement and corrections. She has a background in Political Science with a focus in local government and has a Master of Public Administration from the University of Georgia.

Jessica is a "Like It Or Not" contributor for Fox5 in Atlanta and co-creator of the Peabody Award-nominated podcast 'Prison Town.'

Sign up for her weekly newsletter: http://eepurl.com/gzYAZT

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