Public Comment Period
The following rules have been established to maintain order and decorum during the public comment period. Furthermore, these rules are designed to ensure fairness to each speaker by establishing rules in advance that will be applied equally to each speaker. Special accommodations will be made for persons with a disability with appropriate advanced notice to the districts recording secretary.
The public comment period shall be reserved as an item of business on the agenda for the SLPID monthly meeting, held on the third Thursday of each month. All comments to the Board of Commissioners during the public comment period shall be subject to the following guidelines:
- Prior to the start of public comment period, all persons will register on a sign-up sheet stationed by the meeting room door. The Chair will collect the sign-up sheet and recognize speakers in the order that they registered. Speakers will be asked to identify themselves for the record, and speak directly to the Chair of the Board. All Commissioners, staff and audience refrain from comments or questions. The public comment period is not intended for the Board of Commissioners and/or any staff to answer questions or speak, only to listen. The Board of Commissioners will not take action on an item presented during the public comment period.
- Speakers may speak on any topic unless it is a topic for which a public hearing is being held on the same regular meeting agenda.
- Each speaker shall be limited to a maximum time of three (3) minutes and a total public comment period of 30 minutes. Each speaker will only be allowed to speak once during the public comment period. The Secretary shall serve as time keeper and will promptly announce when the speaker’s time has expired.
- No time may be yielded or transferred from one speaker to another. Each speaker will be concise and avoid repetition. In order to avoid repetition and delay, groups of people supporting the same position are encouraged to designate a spokesperson for the group.
- Speakers who have prepared written remarks or have materials on their comments are encouraged to leave copies with the District’s recording secretary to disseminate to the Board of Commissioners and staff.
- In order to provide for the maintenance of order and decorum in the conduct of the meeting, the Chair may declare “out-of-order” any person who fails to comply with this policy. The Chair shall caution any such person to abide by the provisions of this policy. Refusal to do so shall be grounds for removal of the speaker from the meeting.