Council keeps public‑comment timing at start of meetings, adopts revised civic operating agreements

The Calistoga City Council on March 18 chose to retain the current practice of taking public comments on non‑agenda items at the beginning of meetings and adopted revised civic operating agreements that clarify how council members may ask staff for information.

Public reaction: Multiple speakers urged the council not to move the non‑agenda public‑comment period to the end of the meeting. Aaron Heath told the council that moving comments would reduce participation because “most people don't stick around for the whole meeting.” Dan Herndon and Rose Leclerc also objected, saying moving comments would limit public access to the council and reduce opportunity for residents to be heard.

Council discussion and staff explanation: A council member acknowledged requesting the change to public-comment timing and said the intent was to make it easier to add issues to future agendas; that council member later said they would support keeping public comment at the start if the community preferred. Councilmembers and staff discussed aligning the civic operating agreements with the municipal code language about council‑staff relations. Councilmembers requested that the clarifying sentence included in section 10.3 — confirming that staff may address council members — also be added to section 4.1 to avoid inconsistency.

Action taken: The council voted unanimously to adopt the civic operating agreements as revised to add the clarifying language and to keep the public‑comment period at the beginning of the meeting.

Ending: Councilmembers asked staff to proceed with the revised operating agreements and to make no change to the location of the non‑agenda public‑comment period. Staff noted the city attorney had identified a likely typographical error in the municipal code language and had helped craft the clarifying edits.