Your three minutes is up.

Currently, the city allows public comments for 3 minutes at the beginning of council meetings, but only on agenda business items. A 3 minute period for general comments follows at the very end of the council meeting.

This requires citizens to wait until the very end of meetings before addressing concerns not on the agenda to the council. It also prevents them from re-addressing an issue for a month and a half.

Why?

Some background. For years, the council has had an awkward if not questionable approach to hearing from citizens at meetings.

A 2014 agenda shows two unrestricted public comment periods and no time or subject restrictions. By 2017, under Mayor Mark Dehen, public comments were allowed only on business items.

There was no second general comment period unless citizens called and got the mayor’s permission in advance to address the council. A 90-day period was instituted before a citizen could address the council on the same issue again.

 By 2022, the first comment period was still on agenda items only.  A second open forum was reinstated but only after the council had adjourned and staff had left the room. This meant that citizen comments were not be recorded in the council minutes. And the 90-day rule was still in effect for re-addressing issues.

With Mayor Scott Carlson, two unrestricted 3 minute comment periods were reinstated, now with a 45 day restriction on re-addressing a previous comment. However, as of March 2026, the Mayor reinstated the restriction of first comment, again limiting it to agenda items only. This again requires citizens to sit through an entire meeting of indeterminate length before having the opportunity to make a non-business agenda comment.

We ask: What possible benefit is provided by limiting topics of public concern?