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Warr Acres council tables proposal to reinstate open public‑comment after city‑attorney warning
Summary
Council discussed restoring a ‘call to the public’ item and debated limits (time, topics, resident/business eligibility); city attorney outlined First Amendment and Open Meeting Act constraints and recommended limiting topics or keeping the existing agenda‑item process; a motion to table the matter to next month passed with one 'no' vote.
Councilmembers spent a substantial portion of the meeting debating whether to add a standing "call to the public" item to Warr Acres agendas. A proponent described a structure with a three‑minute limit per speaker and an overall cap (e.g., 30 minutes) to increase citizen engagement. "3 minutes sounds good," one councilmember said; others suggested allowing residents and businesses to speak and limiting total time.
City Attorney Matt gave the council a detailed legal briefing on forum classification and open‑meeting risks. "City council meetings, by definition, are not inherently public forms," he said, explaining differences between a designated public forum and a limited public forum and warning that council members must avoid transacting business on items not on a posted agenda because of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act. He recommended limiting public remarks to agenda items or establishing clear time, place and manner restrictions to reduce legal exposure.
Councilmembers debated whether to limit participation to residents or permit business owners; the attorney said limiting speakers by residency can be defensible as a time, place or manner restriction but warned about viewpoint discrimination. Concerns about meeting length, decorum and staff capacity were raised: one member said meetings already run more than three hours and the addition could extend them further.
A motion to table the proposal to next month so councilmembers could draft a proposed resolution passed on a roll call vote (majority yes, Councilmember Evans voted no). Staff said they would prepare draft language for the next meeting and consider presenting it at the special meeting set for July 29 if appropriate.
