COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado Springs City Council has changed how and when community members can give public comment for items not on the regular agenda during city council meetings.
Previously, the open-ended public comment was limited to three minutes per person for one hour, generally towards the beginning of the meeting. The three minute and one hour limit will not be changing, but now public comment will be held at the end of council's meeting. Council has also eliminated remote testimony, unless someone needs an accommodation for a disability.
The change comes with a new slate of council members sworn in last week. Lynette Crow-Iverson, a councilor at large was elected the President of the council by the members. Crow-Iverson said the change came after hearing from constituents about wanting to have the public comment period at the end of the regular meeting.
"We're just trying to be more open to other suggestions, so we did hear it quite a bit in the last two years," Crow-Iverson said.
The one-hour time limit means about 20 people will be able to speak. While it has been a rule at city council meetings in the past, it has not always been enforced.
A group of citizens voiced their opposition to the changes at Tuesday's council meeting.
"I was very surprised, being that new council members would do something borderline drastic before their very first meeting," Joe Pelka, who spoke at Tuesday's meeting said. Pelka has attended many council meetings, over the past few months he's been coming to voice his concerns over the closure of the Rockrimmon library.
Pelka's concern is that the change will limit who can make comments not on the agenda.
"They're always going to talk about representing their constituents and trying to help things out and having transparency. They always speak to that, but none of those things that they've done today would be consistent with those thoughts," Pelka said.
Council President Crow-Iverson said the decision was made after looking at how other city councils across Colorado operate. She said one reason for the changes is to make meetings more efficient.
"I think the difference is this council is prioritizing citizen comments on today's agenda, on the items on our agenda today, where I think the previous council prioritized citizens' comments, not on today's agenda," Crow-Iverson said, "it's just a balance. You can't have both. You can't have, you know, hours and hours of both. You'll never get to your agenda."
Crow-Iverson said they will give the changes a six-month run and evaluate how it's working.
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