The new Oshkosh Common Council will be sworn in on April 17th at noon. After the swearing in, we will have our organizational meeting. One item that I know will be discussed is citizen statements. The current policy is this:
Individuals speaking to the Council under the heading "Citizen Statements" are limited to five (5) minutes; must address items that are not listed on the Council meeting agenda, are limited to issues that have an impact on the city of Oshkosh and that the Common Council may address at a future meeting, and must not include endorsements of any candidates or other electioneering. (NOTE: Exception to the five (5) minutes may be made at the discretion of the Council.).
Do you like the current policy? If not, what changes do you suggest?
Currently, the Citizen statements are heard at the end of the meeting. Sometimes citizens have to wait as long as 2-3 hours (or longer) make their statement. Should the citizen statements be moved to the beginning of the meeting, as was the case many years ago?
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8 comments:
Dear Tony :
I could Ive with no change to the Citizens Statements or have them at the beginning of the meeting.
Frank Tower on the last "Eye on Oshkosh" show what he would like to be done with Citizen Statements. Frankly it was hard to follow what he was suggesting.
The only change one which I admit would be hard to enforce. is not to let the same person give the same or similiar statement 2-3-4 meetings in a row.
I do like suggestion by mayor-elect Frank Tower to have council member statements before the business of the meeting is taken care of- maybe position in a way that citizens could comment on councilor member statement.
By the way Tony ---I am glad to call you my city council member, OK Councilor Tony Palmeri.
Dear Tony :
I could Ive with no change to the Citizens Statements or have them at the beginning of the meeting.
Frank Tower on the last "Eye on Oshkosh" show what he would like to be done with Citizen Statements. Frankly it was hard to follow what he was suggesting.
The only change one which I admit would be hard to enforce. is not to let the same person give the same or similiar statement 2-3-4 meetings in a row.
I do like suggestion by mayor-elect Frank Tower to have council member statements before the business of the meeting is taken care of- maybe position in a way that citizens could comment on councilor member statement.
By the way Tony ---I am glad to call you my city council member, OK Councilor Tony Palmeri.
Hi Tony
This is a very good question.
The main problem I have with citizen statements is that they create the illusion of citizens having a voice without really delivering on that promise. As we all know, most of the statements are repetitive, come from the same handful of speakers and don't really raise issues that the Council can deal with.
One possibility would be to do away with them as part of the Council meeting and replace them with a new OCAT programs, to be called "Citizen Statements." That way citizens can speak out to their fellow citizens without tieing up Council time. OCAT could simply record Council statements until it has enough to fill a block of time and then rebroadcast them.
The Council has better things to do with its time than what it is currently doing with these statements.
Miles
Miles,
Your suggestion sounds like a version of the very old WOSH program "Public Opinion" with commentator Bud McBain.
That was always a lively discussion, and given the proper moderator, might work.
Miles -
Questions concerning your idea would be when would this take place and who would volunteer to get the show on air ????
I think they should be before meetings.
To keep them to business at hand, require the speaker to reference the resolution number they are speaking about.
If they would like to speak on something not on the agenda, it would be up to the council to allow that after the meeting.
Tony,
As I know you are concerned with the Open Meetings law, I suggest you contact someone to see exactly what "restrictions" one can put on such "statements". When I was on the school board I asked an attorney for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards about that and I seem to recall that you can either have NO comments at all by citizens but if you allow the public to speak, the only restriction you can have is the length of time people can speak.
This is just my recollection but I would check it out if I were you.
I would suggest limiting speakers to 3 minutes as you well know from all the forums a lot can be said in 1-2 minutes, I think 5 minutes is way too long. Just my thoughts.
Teresa Thiel
Citizens statements are an essentail part of the democratic purpose. I am sure there are those who do not wish to continue to hear the same old same old from certain persons. However these people that take the time to actually traverse to City Hall deserve the respect to be heard. If you have better things to do, don't run for office. It IS part of the job.
Just as a reminder to Miles and others part of "city" business is the people of the city and their opinions.
Welcome to democracy 101!
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