In an effort to encourage community participation in government, the Manhattan Beach City Council voted on June 5 to scrap the 15-minute time limit on public comment at council meetings.
“If you’re going to say, after 15 minutes, you can’t speak, that’s contrary to what a democracy is,” Mayor Wayne Powell said, adding that residents have told him they don’t attend meetings for fear that they won’t be able to speak due to time constraints.
When Powell began his mayoral term in May, he’d said his first goal was to extend public participation. In a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Richard Montgomery casting the dissenting vote, the council approved an unlimited public comment period.
While members of the public appreciated the gesture, they hoped to get more feedback on the issues they raised at meetings.
“What you will have is more input, people coming in expressing themselves on certain issues and then nothing happening because the Brown Act prohibits you from commenting,” said resident Esther Besbris. “Perhaps at every meeting you might agendize one of the items people have brought before you. That would validate their coming up before you.”
Resident Gerry O’Connor concurred. “Let’s at least see if there’s consensus to put it on the agenda and if not, the public speaker got their answer,” he said.
While it approved extending public comment, the council acknowledged that it needs to work on meeting time management.
The June 5 meeting, which included the approval of the city budget, lasted five hours, and three items had to be tabled to the following meeting due to the late hour. “Going into items past 10:30 is unfair to us, it’s unfair to the public, it’s not good government,” Councilmember Nick Tell said.
The agenda had also included three ceremonial items, during which the city honored members of the community for their contributions. Council members questioned Powell’s idea to do this at every meeting. “You have to look at ceremonial items in the context of entire agenda,” said Councilmember Amy Howorth. “When you have the budget on the agenda, you have to assume that’s a long discussion.”
Tell suggested cutting the number of ceremonial items down to one or two. “When you invite people down, they want to spend time to talk about [their] organization,” Tell said. “It’s hard to cut them off.”
With less ceremonial items, the council can more quickly get to items that require extensive discussion, Tell said. “The concern is always that the people that have items that aren’t on the agenda take the time and push the items that are on the agenda later causing people to have to leave,” he said.
Powell recognized the ambitious number of items on the June 5 agenda, but was adamant of the importance of ceremonial items.
Howorth added that she thinks the council members sometimes talk too much. “We’ve asked pointed questions so people know where we’re coming from,” she said, adding, “then we give these huge speeches on how we believe and everybody knows how we believe.”
