Cape Council extends public input time
Cape Coral City Council on Monday extended the amount of time allotted for public comment at its meetings from 45 minutes to an hour.
The change was brought forward by Councilmember Marilyn Stout after the elected board trimmed its weekly meeting schedule to twice monthly for 2017.
Stout also proposed increasing each speaker’s time limit to five minutes, but that was an issue for some on council.
“The whole idea was to give citizens more time,” said Councilmember Rick Williams. “Extending it to five minutes does not make sense. It would result in fewer people talking. Do the math. Twelve people would get to speak in 60 minutes if they all take five minutes. At three minutes, 15 people can address council in 45 minutes. Personally, I agree with the 60 minutes.”
“I’m OK with the 60 minutes because sometimes at the end of 45 minutes we would not allow more to speak,” said Councilmember Richard Leon.
Several on council agreed with Williams’ assessment of keeping the time limit to three minutes per speaker while adding 15 minutes overall. The extension applies to both consent agenda and public comment periods at every meeting.
“Getting more speakers to the podium to me is more important than the five minutes because I believe most people say what they have to say in the three minutes,” said Councilmember John Carioscia. “I agree with the 60 minutes, but let’s leave it at three minutes per speaker.”
Council unanimously approved the extension to 60 minutes.
Councilmember Rana Erbrick suggested adding a town hall meeting each month that would allow citizen input outside of a council business meeting.
“It would be a more informal setting,” said Erbrick. “It may put people more at ease when commenting to council.”
Councilmember Jessica Cosden, Leon and Stout liked the town hall proposal.
“I think the town hall meeting is a good idea,” said Stout. “Maybe not every month, perhaps once a quarter or something.”
With at least three others agreeing with her, Erbrick said she would do some research and bring back options to council at a future meeting.