The way Long Beach runs its public comment period during City Council meetings is about to change.<\/p>\n
After much opposition and deliberation, the City Council approved a new ordinance on Tuesday, Oct. 6, that will give Long Beach residents one public comment period to speak to their elected officials on agenda and non-agenda items at the beginning of each meeting. The final reading of the ordinance will happen at the next regular council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, according to the staff report.<\/p>\n
In the past year, the City Council has had several discussions about reorganizing meetings to make them more accessible to the public and accommodate state Senate Bill 707, which went into effect on July 1 and expands requirements for public participation in local government meetings by providing virtual options.<\/p>\n
A proposed ordinance was shot down in June, which was met with strong opposition from residents. But last month, council members brought the discussion back to the dais and Long Beach residents. That resulted in a majority of city leaders moving forward with the new ordinance.<\/p>\n
With the City Council\u2019s decision this week, and ultimately final approval next week, public comments on agenda and non-agenda items will be consolidated into 90 minutes at the beginning of the meeting after ceremonials and presentations. The public comment list would close once the last speaker is in the queue, though the mayor would have the discretion to extend the period by 30-minute increments if more speakers are still waiting at the end of the 90 minutes, according to the staff report.<\/p>\n
The new public comment process will not apply to hearing items that would still have their own dedicated public comment period, officials said. Hearing items will be taken immediately following the public comment period.<\/p>\n
The council voted 6-3 to approve the proposal, with Councilmembers Cindy Allen, Kristina Duggan and Megan Kerr voting against it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand our meetings run long; part of our meetings is deliberation and discussion. I understand public comment can sometimes be difficult,\u201d Duggan said during the Tuesday meeting. \u201cI don\u2019t accept it being disrespectful, but sitting here and listening to the public is one of the most basic responsibilities we have as council members. I\u2019m going to be registering my opposition tonight, as I have on previous votes. I do think we need to make our meetings more efficient, and I think we can start by looking at our processes that we do not follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the majority of council members backed the ordinance, saying that change is necessary to accommodate the new state law, maintain city services and continue being a \u201cprogressive city.\u201d Sixth District Councilmember Suely Saro, for example, once again shared the importance of representing her constituents\u2019 need for a predictable public comment time for families and working residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been consistently voting for this because I have been listening to my residents,\u201d she said. \u201cI have diverse community residents who\u2019ve called in because they have various circumstances on why they couldn\u2019t attend the meeting, but why they also have challenges calling in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also respect that you would like to make sure you have your comments,\u201d Saro added, \u201cbut it\u2019s changing the way we\u2019re doing commenting, not taking it away.\u201d<\/p>\n
During public comment period on Tuesday, the majority of speakers opposed the ordinance but there were some residents who said they supported being able to speak early on during council meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents should have meaningful and accessible opportunities to share their concerns, ideas and perspectives with the City Council,\u201d said Sithea San, chair of Cambodia Town Inc. \u201cI especially support making participation more accessible by allowing residents to speak in person, online or by phone, while continuing to accept written and online comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is especially important for seniors, people with disabilities, working families, caregivers and residents who cannot easily attend City Hall,\u201d San added. \u201cI also support combining regular agenda and non-agenda items in one speaking turn, making the process more predictable and respectful of residents\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n
A handful of local university students also made comments supporting the ordinance, saying that it allows students and residents to have a set time for when public comment will occur so they can get back to studying or other responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike many college students, I balance classes, homework, work and other responsibilities, and finding time to attend council meetings already requires planning and having to wait several hours before being able to speak, which can make getting my opinions out more difficult,\u201d said Cal State Long Beach student Joseph Bass. \u201cMoving public comment earlier would help us participate while keeping up with our responsibilities, and in a time where civic participation seems frowned upon, I appreciate that you\u2019re considering the needs of working students, and I ask you to support this proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents in opposition pointed out that moving all public comments to the beginning of the council meeting wouldn\u2019t let people be truly informed and engaged when commenting on agenda items if they haven\u2019t heard staff presentations. Others doubted that council members could recall someone\u2019s comment when an item decision may happen hours later.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeparating our voice from the topic will disjoint and diminish us by corralling every public comment on every subject to the same time slot,\u201d Long Beach resident Laura Selmer said. \u201cOur voices are more like a mosh pit, unconnected to the business at hand. Disengagement by you, the listener, is certain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others said that it was a violation of their First Amendment rights and disrupted the democratic process that should occur at City Council meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy is threatened when public comment is limited so much that the public can barely be heard,\u201d said Anthony Holmes, community organizer and Long Beach resident. \u201cYou cannot call it public participation if you control how and how much the public is allowed to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The way Long Beach runs its public comment period during City Council meetings is about to change. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,1610,1071,23,131,133,132,137],"class_list":["post-488568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-city-council","tag-local-government","tag-local-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}