Jackson City Council narrows public-hearing comment rules to topic-specific remarks

The Jackson City Council unanimously approved an amendment Jan. 28 requiring that comments offered during public hearings remain relevant to the subject under consideration and authorized the city manager and city attorney to make minor modifications to the rule language.

Council members said the change is intended to keep public-hearing discussion focused because public hearings allow extended question-and-answer exchanges without a time limit. Council member Connor Wood, the 4th Ward representative, described that intent in detail: "Number 3, comments made during the public hearing shall remain relevant to the specific topic of the hearing, is really the only major change. . . . The purpose of that is because this is the only time during public comment or a public interaction with this body, we allow for questions to be asked and answered. And so we wanna make sure that if questions are being asked and answered with no time limit, that it is actually, germane to the topic that we are discussing at that time."

The amendment applies specifically to the public-hearing portion of meetings, not to the regular citizen-comment segment, the council said during brief discussion. The mayor called for a vote after discussion, the clerk recorded a unanimous vote, and the change took effect upon adoption.

Council members did not identify additional procedural or enforcement details at the meeting; the language also authorizes staff to make "minor modifications" to clarify implementation. City officials did not set a separate timeline for publishing or training staff on the change during the meeting.