Graham, Donna
From: Laurie Ortoiano <faurieortolano@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2020 7:57 PM
To: Board of Aldermen
Subject: An email for public record
CAUTION: This email came trom outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source is
unknown,
Please place this email on the public record at a Board of Aldermen Meeting.
This blog post was inspired by the actions of Dave Tenza, Lori Wilshire, and Rick Dowd.
Pandemic muzzling of the public
Everyone knows that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives, at least temporarily. This includes how
we, the public, participate in local politics. With the pandemic-induced changes to how local politics works, |
am a little concerned about the health of public participation in local politics during these unusual times. Let's
take a look at why | believe our voices are not being heard as well now.
Ordinarily, we can all participate in any public meeting by simply attending. In most cases, signing in and
standing to address a board during community input is standard practice. And in our open, democratic society,
our words become part of the public record.
Since the closing of City Hall to the public two months ago, how does public input work now? The Board of
Aldermen voted to only accept, not read, emails and placed them on file for all remote meetings. The Board’s
pandemic position to acknowledge the email is a far cry from physical participation in a public meeting where
press coverage and media viewership brings light to citizen comments.
The Board has adopted an even more interesting practice. A citizen’s email communication for public input
must be receive one week prior to the Board meeting, otherwise it is tabled until the next meeting, two weeks
down the road. This eliminates all citizens from emailing comments on items to be acted on in the upcoming
meeting. At a minimum, the Board should be making these emails available in a much timelier manner.
The Boards new rules on public comment is a strong indication of how muted our voices have become in city
government. Ordinarily, the Board would provide up to 30 minutes for public comment; they have been
running freely without any “interference” from the public.
On the other hand, board committees or city managers have the ability to submit reports to the board and
have them immediately recognized on record. President Wilshire simply suspends the rule, if there is no
objection of the Board, and accepts into record the correspondence submitted (BOA Youtube 4/28/2020 at 16
min). The Board is using The Mason Rules for Legislative Procedure to muzzle the public, rather than to keep
order so all voices can be heard.
