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Council Votes 8-0 On First Of Two Req'd Votes To Change City Law Affecting Public's Ability To Speak And Be Heard On Council Agenda Items; Second Vote Sept. 10, Council Could Make Amendments


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(Sept. 5, 2019) -- Roughly six hours into its Sept. 3 Council meeting, Councilmembers voted 8-0 on the first of two required votes -- a second enacting vote is required on Sept. 10 at which time a Councilmember(s) could offer amendments -- to a change LB city law that will affect the public's right to speak at Council meetings.

The motion by Vice Mayor Dee Andrews, seconded by Councilman Daryl Supernaw, gave initial approval to a package measures that originated when Councilman Daryl Supernaw said he wanted to "streamline" (shorten) Council meetings and invited non-elected City Hall management to offer suggestions (none of which proposed to increase the public's ability to address the Council.) One of the changes would would make an unprecedented change in LB Council procedure:

The draft ordinance text includes the following:

...C. Public Comment for Agenda Items.

1. Each person desiring to address the City Council on an agenda item shall submit their name in writing to the City Clerk prior to the time that the Mayor, or other presiding officer, calls for the agenda item to be taken up for consideration. At that time, the speakers list for said agenda item will be closed and speakers will be called to speak at a time deemed appropriate by the Mayor, or presiding officer. [emphasis added]

Although some legislative bodies (including the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and L.A. County Metro) require the public to a submit-a-card/sign-up to speak to agenda items, the LB draft ordinance goes further by creating a forfeiture of a person's right to speak to Council agenda items unless he/she signs up before the item is called. The public can't know when the item will be called because another "streamlining" rule enables the Mayor without Council objection to move agenda items and take them up as he wishes.

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In addition to effectively requiring the public to be present for the entire Council meeting to ensure they can speak to one item they wish, the new chgange would also effectively preclude members of the audience who might not sign up to speak, but decide to speak in response to statements by the public or city staff that deserve rebuttal or correction. (Other speakers could do so only by foregoing portions of their planned testimony that may already be cut to 90 seconds under another "streamlining" rule.)

At the Sept. 3 Council meeting, the draft ordinance didn't come up until roughly six hours into the meeting. Mayor Garcia could have taken the item up earlier, when the change would have been more prominent, but he didn't. Public speakers Ann Cantrell and Corliss Lee -- who'd been present at City Hall since 2:30 p.m. to attend a meeting of the Council's "Budget Oversight Committee" as well as the evening Council meeting, signed up to speak but were simply unable to stay until 11 p.m...so no one publicly spoke to this proposed change.

To date, no incumbent Councilmember has indicated a willingness to make a minor tweak to the text [advocated editorially by LBREPORT.com] that would address the issue by specifying that after all member of the public who signed up have been heard, the Mayor or presiding chair shall ask if any others wish to speak, invite them to be heard and then close public testimony.

[LBREPORT.com expresses no opinion here on whether the Council can legally do this under the Brown Act.]

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Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.


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