Residents urge Clermont County commissioners to restore public-comment time after limits cut

Clermont County residents pressed the Board of County Commissioners on May 20 to reinstate the previous public-comment rules after the board reduced total public-participation time to 15 minutes and limited speakers to two minutes each.

Joseph Wagner of Batavia Township told the board the change is a “50% reduction” in access and said he plans to organize a petition to reverse it. “Restore, give back simple, reasonable public access of 30 minutes and 5 minutes per person, period,” Wagner said. Julie Tolliver, Ed McCoy, Joanne Meyer and Regina Pajoric echoed that sentiment, saying the tighter limits exclude working residents, caregivers and those who cannot attend frequently.

The board’s stated practice during the public-comment period is not to engage in debate or answer questions, but several speakers urged the commissioners to treat residents’ statements seriously. Tolliver asked that a proposed amendment to the board’s rules of procedure be added to the agenda for formal consideration; she moved to add it to today’s agenda and a fellow participant seconded the motion. The chair put the addition to a roll-call vote and the board approved including discussion of rules of procedure on a future agenda.

Speakers tied the change to concerns about fairness and access. Joanne Meyer, who said she often attends meetings while caring for a spouse with cancer, said the two-minute limit makes residents feel “like you don’t want to hear from us and you don’t care.” Ed McCoy said he learned about the change through social media and described it as a “simple change” that he wants reversed.

The meeting record shows the board allows the chair to decide whether to respond to public comments and that formal discussion of rules and any amendments will occur under a separate agenda item. No formal policy change was adopted during public comment itself; rather, the board agreed to consider procedural rule revisions at a later point. Commissioners did not vote on restoring the prior limits during the May 20 session.

What happens next: the rules-of-procedure item was added to the board’s agenda for future consideration; the meeting record does not specify a timetable for that discussion or whether staff will draft specific amendment language. The board’s rules limit public comment to matters within the board’s purview and permit the chair to stop remarks that stray outside those bounds.