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Subcommittee refers 'public speak-out' pilot to full council after legal review
Summary
After an Attorneys review, the subcommittee agreed to send a pilot plan to move public speak-out inside regular city council meetings to the full council with a recommendation; the attorney said the pilot preserves existing time, manner and content rules but raises open-meeting-law considerations.
A Springfield City Council general government subcommittee voted on March 18 to refer a pilot that would place the councils "public speak-out" inside regular meetings to the full city council for a decision.
Attorney Moore, who briefed the committee, said the pilot would largely preserve the existing programs rules — currently up to eight speakers at three minutes each — while moving the speaker block into the council agenda. "So the program that's being proposed is essentially taking the existing public speak out structure and moving it inside of the regular meeting agenda," he said, and added that the pilot retains the programs time, place and manner restrictions.
Moore cautioned that moving speak-out into the meeting does make open-meeting-law concerns more visible because councilors must avoid participating in ways that convert comments into deliberations or official action. He offered to produce an eight-to-10-item executive summary of the memo explaining what the pilot does and does not change.
Councilors debated logistics: whether to keep eight speakers or reduce the number to five, whether to change meeting start times, and how to avoid lengthy delays to the agenda. Councilor Davila said he supports the idea in spirit but raised concerns about policing councilor participation and remote attendance.
Councilor Davila moved to send the pilot to the full city council with a recommendation for a vote; the motion was seconded and committee members responded "Aye." The committee did not adopt a final rule; Attorney Moore will draft a concise executive summary and the pilot will appear on the full council agenda for further consideration.
Ending: The subcommittee voted to refer the pilot to the full city council; staff will prepare the requested executive summary before the next meeting.
