Securis Posted June 21, 2023 at 02:07 AM Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 at 02:07 AM Currently, our organization has a Resident Open Forum on our agenda after Officer's Reports are given. This forum and public meetings in general are vastly under utilized mostly due to apathy or disenchantment with the parliamentary process. As per usual, once the open forum closes and the business meeting begins, residents are no longer allowed to comment and must wait for the next open forum 30 days down the road. It is a common complaint WHEN residents attend that topics up for discussion can't be commented on in real time. Granted, if the open forum were to be utilized more, complaints would be less. Our board is considering an intermediate measure to allow public comment on topics as the meeting progresses. I envision it being a motion by a board member to open the public comment under a limited debate type time limit. Is this in line with parliamentary procedure or is there another method of allowing limited public comment as business is conducted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted June 21, 2023 at 02:44 AM Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 at 02:44 AM Well, RONR doesn't recommend any in particular, so it's up to the board to set the rules, unless there are rules about it in the bylaws. Check there before taking other action. There are a number of ways I've seen this done. In some municipal bodies, when an ordinance is up for discussion a hearing is held when that item comes up on the agenda. There may be two or three such hearings during the course of a meeting. Those hearings are limited to legislative motions, and only to remarks germane to that one motion. There can be a general hearing near the start of the meeting. It is also possible to schedule two hearings. one at the start and one at the end prior to adjournment. I've seen such a process work well. In that case, comments from non-members (of the board) are limited to items on the agenda for the first hearing and, for the second, any topic that someone wants to bring to the board. What you do not want to do is to encourage people to speak up any time a thought occurs to them, and it will require the chair to be vigilant to prevent this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted June 21, 2023 at 11:47 AM Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 at 11:47 AM On 6/20/2023 at 9:07 PM, Securis said: Is this in line with parliamentary procedure or is there another method of allowing limited public comment as business is conducted? The organization is free to adopt such rules on this matter as it wishes. RONR has very little to say on the subject of public comment, simply noting that it is up to the assembly's rules. "In meetings of many public bodies, such as school boards, the public may attend. Similarly, in some private organizations such as church councils, parishioners may be permitted to attend. These attendees are not members of the meeting body and ordinarily have no right to participate. Some bodies, especially public ones, may invite nonmembers to express their views, but this is done under the control of the presiding officer subject to any relevant rules adopted by the body and subject to appeal by a member. Often, by rule or practice, time limits are placed on speakers and relevance is closely monitored." RONR (12th ed.) 9:29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Securis Posted June 21, 2023 at 01:52 PM Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 at 01:52 PM Thank you, that's very helpful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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