Council adopts public-comment policy after edits that keep personal-appearance option

The Minot City Council on July 7 adopted a written public-comment (personal appearances) policy after a multi-hour discussion and multiple amendments. The action was prompted by a recently enacted state law (Senate Bill 2180) that requires local governing bodies to offer a public comment period on regular agendas and permits local governments to adopt written rules.

City attorneys produced a draft policy based on a model from the North Dakota League of Cities; the draft was amended during the meeting to preserve the council’s existing practice of allowing speakers to sign up at the meeting rather than requiring pre-meeting sign-up, to retain the council’s ability to group speakers by topic and to remove a hard 30-minute limit on the public comment period. The council retained the state-mandated requirement that individuals provide their name and address in writing; the written address is treated as an exempt record under state open-records law.

Key elements of the adopted policy include: a five-minute speaker time limit (matching the city’s existing speaker practice) that remains extendable at the council’s discretion; a requirement that speakers register by submitting a card before speaking (cards may be completed at the podium at the meeting); an explicit acknowledgement that the council chair has discretion to group speakers by topic and to manage order and time; and a procedure for distributing written comments received before a meeting.

Council members said their goal was to balance the new state mandate with Minot’s existing openness to public comment and to ensure the policy does not hamper spontaneous public participation. The council unanimously adopted the amended resolution.