Council agrees comments-only public participation, three-minute limit

Council members spent the longest portion of the work session focused on how the town should handle public participation. Several members warned that taking questions and answers during the comment period can create unnoticed deliberations or ‘‘gotcha’’ exchanges; Council member Pat Campbell said such back-and-forth can quickly get meetings off track. The group coalesced around a working position that the public comment item should remain at the start of the meeting, allow any stakeholder to speak, be limited to three minutes, and be comments-only.

The council also set a process for written materials: if a member of the public brings documents that they want placed in the permanent written meeting record, a council member must sponsor that material during the meeting for it to be included in the minutes. "That that agenda item should be a comment opportunity...any document that they have one of us must sponsor so to speak to put in the permanent written record of the meeting," Mayor Barbara Bruno said while summarizing the group decision.