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in the
In what could shape up to be a contentious issue,
Councilman Dave Weaver announced that curtailing public comments would be on
the agenda as an item up for discussion.
The impetus, he said, was to limit the amount of time that the public is
allowed to speak to an amount of time more in line with other Southern
California cities, which he said averages about 2 minutes.
Weaver is proposing to cut the current
time from five minutes to three minutes.
“I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and it’s getting ugly,” he said.
Weaver estimated that, on average, there are 15 speakers per meeting, who speak
for 75 minutes.
The problem with the current five-minute time allotment, according to Weaver,
is that too often, people speak on issues that are simply not pertinent to the
topic, such as lecturing the council or even sharing a story about a vacation.
“The general public has let me know very clearly that they do not care for that,”
he said. “Most of the people who come to council meetings are there for those
items [on the agenda].”
Weaver may have some challenges getting the two other votes he needs to carry
the item when it does go before the council for a decision.
“I’m not sold on that idea,” Quintero said.
Starbird said he anticipates that when the issue goes
before City Council again, it will attract significant comments from the
public.