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Portage Common Council adopts streamlined public comment policy
Summary
The Portage Common Council approved a revised public comment policy that removes residency limits, sets a five-minute speaking limit, prohibits electioneering and moves annual review to the organizational meeting.
The Portage Common Council on April 15 adopted a revised public comment policy that eliminates residency restrictions for speakers, sets a five-minute limit per speaker and bars campaigning during public comment.
Council leaders and the city attorney framed the changes as a legal and administrative simplification intended to avoid selective enforcement and to make public comment less bureaucratic while preserving order.
City Administrator Michael Boblick said the committee’s draft “really frees who can speak, when they can speak, and on the topics they can speak,” and described the previous policy as overly restrictive. City Attorney Jesse Spankowski told the council municipalities “get in trouble when they try to limit speech,” and urged even-handed application of any rules. The policy keeps three concrete limits: no electioneering or campaign activity during public comment, completion of a public comment appearance form (name, address and topic), and a five-minute maximum speaking time.
The revised policy also removes a signature line on the appearance form and shifts the mandatory annual review from the legislative and regulatory committee to the council’s annual organizational meeting. Council members debated whether council members or the mayor should be permitted to respond during public comment; the revised policy removes a blanket prohibition on council responses and instead places responsibility on the chair to limit any back-and-forth that would turn comment into discussion.
Alderperson Tim Green voiced ongoing disagreement with the change, saying he preferred discussion in smaller committee settings and raising concerns about onboarding a new city administrator. Supporters said the change addresses recurring quorum problems and avoids delaying relatively minor items in multiple committees.
A motion to approve the policy was made and seconded; a roll call recorded ayes and the measure passed.
The ordinance text and the attached appearance form are part of the council packet. Implementation will be administered by the city clerk’s office; the policy will be reviewed at the council’s next organizational meeting.
