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Taunton council begins debate on formal rules for letters on agendas and role of city employees in public input
Summary
Councilors asked the city solicitor to draft guidance for how resident letters are placed on council agendas and debated whether city employees and department heads should be allowed to respond during public input. No final rule was adopted; the item will return to the Rules committee.
The Committee of the Whole took up a request to clarify the process for handling letters submitted by residents for the council agenda and whether the clerk’s longstanding, informal practices should be reduced to written rules. City Solicitor Attorney Costa told the council the clerk has followed practices that exclude certain communications—such as complaints about individuals—from appearing on the regular agenda, and he said a written rule could make that process more transparent.
Councilor Sanders urged caution about allowing city executives, department heads and the law department to respond during public input, saying those responses can chill citizen participation. "When the mayor says it, it should really mean city government," Sanders said, urging that comments be "received for the record" and responded to later in a formal way (Councilor Sanders). By contrast, other members said there are occasions when factual clarifications or immediate corrections by department staff are valuable and legal under the open-meeting rules if the item is placed on the agenda.
Multiple councilors supported a tracking system so that the mayor and councilors could see when a letter is received and why it was not placed on the agenda. Councilors also discussed the charter’s assignment of agenda responsibility to the mayor and whether the council can or should set formal qualifications for agenda items. The council did not adopt a rule at the meeting; members agreed to continue the conversation at the next Rules meeting (anticipated Oct. 7).
