Galesburg City Council discussed changes to various aspects of how meetings are run at a work session Monday night.
Changes include moving the meeting time from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., requiring all public speakers to sign in and state the topic they’re going to speak about, limiting each public comment to 3 minutes, and limiting the time that Council members can give closing comments.
Those ordinances were on first reading on May 15 and will come back at the first June meeting.
Ward 3 Council member Evan Miller suggested amending the time limit for public commenters to 3 minutes after it was previously suggested that the limit be moved from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.
Ward 5 Council member Heather Acerra says it’s important to have a public comment but that “Illinois law does allow us to put in place reasonable limits.”
She cites 3 hours of public comments at the last Council meeting and says the council needs to be able to get its business done.
She also suggested putting a limit on how many speakers could speak at any meeting.
Ward 6 Council member Sarah Davis says she doesn’t think it’s necessary to limit the time of speakers because if there are a lot of speakers that’s a sign the Council isn’t doing something right.
Davis also suggested moving the limit for Council members closing comments from the proposed to 2 minutes to 5.
Ward 4 Council member Dwight White says he felt trying to limit Council’s member speaking was aimed at him, but said he would respect the rules if they passed.
Mayor Peter Schwartzman says he proposed to move the meetings to 6 p.m. in reaction to a proposal to move public comments to the start of the meeting.
Schwartzman says this would allow more time for community members who wish to speak to attend.
Attorney Paul Mangieri said that he didn’t see any First Amendment concerns in the way the ordinances were written.
Mangeri explained it would be the presiding officer’s or the Mayor’s discretion on whether a speaker was talking about something not pertaining to city business.
However, he says that the Council by a simple majority could overrule the Mayor’s call.
Schwartzman says he will follow the ordinances as written but he will make sure that everyone that attends meetings has a chance to be heard.
