Members of the public who would like to speak at a Naples City Council meeting on a topic not on that meeting’s agenda will now have to wait until after all agenda items are discussed. Previously, public comment for items that are not on the agenda were allowed toward the beginning of the meeting before all the resolutions and hearings. Now, after an April 3 council vote, the public comment portion at the beginning of the meetings are solely for items on the agenda.
So far in 2023, the Naples City Council meetings have averaged more than seven hours long. Council member Ted Blankenship said it’s unfair to make the public wait hours to make their voice heard.
“To me, one of the most important aspects of our meetings and our roles as council members is to hear from the public on whatever topic is important to them,” Blankenship said. “I think moving [public comment] to the end is problematic in that meetings often go late like this one. And it’s very unpredictable and asking our residents to either come here and wait all day or sit at home and watch TV and wait all day for the opportunity to come tell us what’s on their mind is hard. We are committed to being here all day but I don’t think we should expect that of the residents.”
Public speakers are limited to three minutes at the podium. Blankenship brought forward the possibility of gauging how much off-agenda public comment will take place each meeting and determining whether to notify the public beforehand that their speaking time will be cut shorter.
“I’m just trying to think of ways to be fair to our residents and the ones that we want to hear from and we want to know what’s on their minds, that they can come speak early in the meeting and not have to be on call or wait around all day not knowing if or when we’ll get to it,” Blankenship said.
Councilor Beth Petrunoff said she doesn’t want to cut people’s time when they’re already limited to three minutes, but it’s appropriate to place the agenda as a priority over comments on items not scheduled to be discussed.
“I believe that we have a series of obligations to our residents of getting through priorities that I hope we set based on what our residents wanted,” Petrunoff said. “So, we have a set that we’re trying to chew through, and I don’t think that it’s fair to the residents of the city to have it hijacked.”
Vice Mayor Michael McCabe said that the off-agenda public comments are meant to simply bring attention to an issue and it doesn’t make a difference when those comments occur.
“If it’s just an awareness, then having it at the end of the meeting suffices just as much as having it in the beginning of the meeting,” McCabe said. “It also eliminates the ability to hijack and delay the business of the residents and the people. It puts the petitioners in a better position and it puts the staff in a better position to be able to do the business.”
The council went on to discuss the possibility of making last-minute decisions to push the public comment to the end depending on how many people show up to speak. Mayor Teresa Heitmann voiced in favor of the flexibility, however Council member Perry said that this strategy will not settle well with the public.
“We have people that are really angry to begin with, and if they show up at 8:30 a.m. thinking that they are going to be able to start speaking at about a quarter to 9, and then we say ‘Sorry, come back at 4 o’clock,’ I think we better have our plexiglass bulletproof shields in front of us at that point,” Perry said. “Because I think we’re going to get shoes and everything else thrown at us. I think it would be better to just put it on the agenda at the appropriate place.”
The decision to make public comment for items not on the meeting agenda a separate item after all items are discussed passed 4-3, with Mayor Heitmann and council members Blakenship and Hutchison opposed. Those who would like to speak on items on the agenda will still have the opportunity to do so before the resolutions and hearings begin.
