The City Council’s Legislative Affairs Committee has unanimously approved Councilor-at-Large Katy Rogers’ proposal to change the public speaking format at council meetings.
Committee Chair Michael Marchese and Ward 3 Councilor Anthony DiPierro joined Rogers in voting for the rule change which would grant speakers a total of three minutes to comment on agenda and non-agenda items at council meetings. Currently, speakers have separate two-minute opportunities to comment on agenda and non-agenda items for a total of four minutes.
Rogers offered the reasons for her proposal during the committee meeting.
“The goal of this piece is to condense public participation to one 3-minute list, so that way we’re not separating whether it’s agenda or non-agenda,” said Rogers. “We recently had an example where a woman came up to speak on a non-agenda item relating to the snow emergency, and she had to wait for about two hours until the end of the meeting. For full transparency and consistency across our government – school committee does three minutes as well – I think it should be a simple 3-minute list, whether it’s agenda or non-agenda, it should just be freedom of speech. That’s the point of this initiative.”
City councilors will vote whether to adopt the rule change at an upcoming meeting.