Committee critiques draft public-comment policy as overly restrictive, directs streamlined version for review

Members of Portage City’s Legacy Regulatory Committee criticized a proposed two-page public-comment policy as overly restrictive and directed staff to prepare a streamlined version that preserves a five-minute time limit and clarifies what council members may say in response.

Committee members said the draft placed too many limits on what speakers could say and on how aldermen could respond. One member called the draft “a bad look,” arguing that the policy should require only a sign-up form and a five-minute limit and should not prevent aldermen from asking clarifying questions or briefly noting appreciation for a speaker’s comments.

Members also raised the legal context: the state’s open meetings law restricts members of a governing body from deliberating outside of noticed agenda items, which the committee said can make public-comment rules complicated. The committee’s recommended approach was to keep the policy short, retain a five-minute per-speaker cap, and allow the chair discretion to curtail comments that stray into impermissible deliberation or slander.

Aldermen asked staff to produce a simplified draft by the next business meeting so the council could review it; members said they would also share the draft with City Attorney Jesse Smankowski for review. Several members said that, in practice, chairs should be trusted to stop inappropriate remarks and to invite speakers to pursue formal agenda items if the topic requires council action.

The committee did not adopt a final policy at the meeting but directed staff to prepare the streamlined version for the next business meeting.