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Dunn County executive committee debates how to handle emailed public comments
Summary
Committee members discussed new rules that stop staff from reading emailed public comments aloud, whether and how to include those emails in packets or acknowledge them, and options for notifying constituents when emails are not accepted as public comment.
The Dunn County Executive Committee on an administrative meeting discussed how the county will handle public comments submitted by email after recent changes to board rules.
County manager Dan said the new process means “we no longer read comments that were sent over email out loud in the meetings,” and staff would instead acknowledge emailed comments in the record and share them with committee members. He urged chairs how they want staff to manage emails that may not meet the rule that comments be “germane to an item on the agenda.”
Committee members and staff debated practical steps. One proposal was creating a separate PDF section in each committee packet labeled “constituent communications” so all emailed messages intended for committees would be publicly available without being read into minutes. Jenna, a staff member who oversees the packet and communications work, said that format would treat those submissions as public records while avoiding the fine-grained question of whether each email qualifies as public comment under the ordinance.
Supervisors said constituents who appear in person should receive the same acknowledgment as emailed writers, and several members favored notifying people whose emailed messages are rejected. Supervisor Steen said people who attend in person deserve some leeway because they may not know procedural rules, while Supervisor Morehouse argued written submitters should receive the same basic response as in-person speakers. Several chairs asked for staff and county counsel to be present at committee meetings to flag items that appear off-agenda and help the chair enforce the rule.
Staff noted trade-offs: making all emailed communications available could require a policy or ordinance change, and different statutory notice categories may still require publication in specific media for some items. Dan said staff will draft guidelines and update the website and agenda language to clarify the boundaries for written and oral public comment.
Committee next steps will include drafting written procedures for: (1) how emailed constituent communications are packaged and shared with committee members; (2) a standard reply to tell a submitter when a message is not accepted as public comment; and (3) guidance for chairs on when to allow or strike off‑topic oral comments during committee meetings.
