COUNCIL OF THE BOROUGH OF CONNEAUT LAKE
PUBLIC COMMENT POLICY
The Council of the Borough of Conneaut Lake welcomes anyone to Council meetings and is willing to hear anyone desiring to appear and comment before the Borough Council. However, the Council of Conneaut Lake Borough may elect to not participate in a public debate regarding any item of public comment. The President of Borough Council is charged with enforcing this Policy. All comments must be directed to the President who then may at his discretion answer or direct the comment or question to the appropriate official. The council of Conneaut Lake Borough wishes the public to know while their comments and concerns are important to us, in most cases we will need an opportunity to research issues prior to any response and that a lack of immediate response is not a lack of consideration.
The Council of Conneaut Lake borough recognizes the value of comment and inquiry by citizens of the Borough on Borough executive and legislative matters. The Council of Conneaut Lake Borough also recognizes their responsibility to implement a structure for conducting business on Borough matters and the necessity to conduct public meeting in a disciplined, orderly, effective, and transparent manner. The Council will, through the adoption of this Policy, establish procedures for public comment at the Borough Council Regular (or Business) meetings.
In order to facilitate public comment during Regular (or Business) meetings or Special Meetings, and to permit the Council to conduct public meetings in a disciplined, orderly, effective and transparent manner, the following Policy is established:
- Regular (or Business) meetings of the Council of the Borough of Conneaut Lake are held on the second Wednesday of a given month at 7:00 p.m. at the Conneaut Lake Borough Municipal Building located at 395 High Street, Conneaut Lake, PA.
- Anyone may elect to contact the Borough Secretary in advance of any scheduled meeting and provide their name, address and the subject matter they will be addressing Council with. This is highly recommended and the earlier that a citizen provided this information the higher probability that Council will be able to address the citizen’s concern immediately after the citizen addresses Council. Citizens may also elect to show up no less than five (5) minutes prior to any scheduled meeting and after placing their name and address on a list of persons interested in addressing Council, will be considered properly placed on the agenda and will be recognized in order, during the public comment portion of the meeting. Anyone placed on the regular meeting agenda should restrict their comments to any Borough matter that is on the published agenda, or to a Borough matter that is, or can be reasonably expected, to be a future actionable item by the Borough Council.
- In the interest of conducting a meeting efficiently, any group desiring to address the Brough Council should select a spokesperson who can express the views of the entire group.
- At the beginning of a Regular meeting, a speaker properly listed on the agenda maybe granted up to five (5) minutes to address an item on the published agenda for that regular meetings, or any other Borough matter that is, or may be reasonably be expected, to come before the Borough Council for action. A speaker properly listed on the agenda for a Special meeting will be granted approximately five (5) minutes after which time Council President shall have the ability to recognize the next citizen or should no citizens remain in the que close the public comment period of the meeting.
- At the end of a Regular Business meeting a public comment period will be provided for those Borough residents or groups who did not timely request to be placed on the agenda, as well as other individuals interested in Borough matters. A person or group wishing to comment during this period must place their name on the sign-in sheet provided, such person wishing to comment during this period will be granted up to three (3) minutes to address an item on the published agenda or any other Borough matter that is, or may reasonably be expected, to come before the Borough Council for action. This comment period is limited to fifteen (15) minutes.
- The Borough Council will not allow comments on operations and individuals over which the Council exercises no operational authority.
- Prior to offering comments, the speaker will be recognized by the President of the Borough Council. The speaker must begin by providing the speaker’s name, address, group affiliation (if any) and specific Borough matter on which the speaker intends to comment.
- At no time during a regular meeting will a speaker be “cross-examined” or otherwise questioned by anyone in the audience. All comments must be directed to the President.
- The Borough Council President may:
- Interrupt or terminate a speaker’s statement when the comments are beyond the permissible time limit, personally directed to a Council member, abusive, threatening, derogatory, obscene, or otherwise not related to a Borough matter on the published agenda or to a Borough matter that is reasonably expected to be a future actionable item of Borough Council;
- Request any individual to leave a meeting when the person does not observe reasonable public decorum;
- Request the assistance of police to remove a disorderly person when his or her conduct interferes with the orderly progress of a meeting;
- Call a recess or adjourn a meeting when the lack of public decorum interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting;
- Waive these rules upon motion of a member of council and with majority of the members of Council present concurring.
