Hal,
The city clerk is indeed a go-between for
the public and the council. To answer your questions, people are not
restricted from handing cards to me or my secretary (who is there for the first
hour of each council meeting) at any point in the meeting on any item.
What the Mayor does with those cards is entirely up to him/her as long as it is
in accordance to the Brown Act and has the recommended approval of our legal
counsel.
The only times I will not accept cards is
if a person turns it in for an item that was already voted upon. In that
case, I will inform the individual that the item has already passed. If
the person is still very passionate about voicing an opinion or thought, I
recommend that they speak to their issue during the oral communications portion
which under the last three Mayors has been split into two portions –
announcements at the beginning and general oral communications at the
end.
Hope this helps.
ak
____________________________________________________________________________
Ardashes "Ardy" Kassakhian
City
Clerk, City of
613 E. Broadway, RM 110
Office: (818) 548-2090 Fax: (818) 241-5386
__________________________________________________________________________
P Save trees. Please only print this e-mail if absolutely necessary.
-----Original Message-----
From: halweber@earthlink.net [mailto:halweber@earthlink.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 3:13 AM
To: Kassakhian, Ardashes
Cc: Howard, Scott; Drayman, John; Friedman, Laura; Najarian,
Ara; Quintero, Frank; Weaver, David
Subject: Speaker Card Policy
Ardy Kassakhian
Ardy:
Historically it has been the policy of previous Glendale City Councils to SELF-IMPOSE GREATER REGULATIONS ON ITSELF in accordance with Brown Act Section 54953.7, allowing the public to address agenda items both BEFORE AND DURING agenda items. In all my years of either attending or watching Glendale City Council meetings on television, I cannot recall EVER seeing a member of the public denied a request to address the council when they submitted a Speaker Card DURING an agenda item.
On
My research into the INTENT of the wording of the Brown Act failed to find that Mayor Quintero is wrong in his interpretation that he has a CHOICE of allowing input EITHER before OR during the agenda item presentations.
Fair enough! But Mayor Quintero must be consistent in applying his new policy. He cannot deny CERTAIN members of the public from addressing the council for handing in their cards DURING the presentations, yet NOT DENY other members of the public for the same offense. That, of course, would be discrimination.
Since you are an innocent "go-between" in the Speaker Card procedure, I would like an understanding regarding your function:
1. Do you refuse to accept Speaker Cards that are not handed in BEFORE the beginning of agenda item presentations? Or,
2. Do you accept ALL Speaker Cards handed to you regardless of whether it is BEFORE or DURING agenda item presentations? If so, do you hand ALL of those cards to the Mayor, or do you withhold cards handed in DURING presentations, either on your own or on a "signal" from the Mayor so that he does not have to publicly, on camera, deny the request to speak?
Respectfully,
Hal Weber