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7.a) Staff Report-Public Forum Guidelines4iCAbANIA Date of Meeting: May 6, 2013 To: Park and Recreation Committee From: Kristina Handt, City Administrator Re: Public Forum Guidelines Agenda Item #: Ta) Background: Last year the committee discussed the need to establish some guidelines for the public forum portion of the agenda. Chair Zauner provided a sample that was previously emailed to all committee members and is included in your packet. Issue: Should the PRC follow these public forum guidelines? Proposal Details: • Anyone who wishes to speak during the Public Forum time on a topic not covered in the agenda may do so. • Please limit your time to 5 minutes. • The Committee members may want to ask questions. • The Committee will not necessarily make a decision at that time. The Committee will let you know what your next step will be if you require an action from the City. Staff would recommend that the time be limited to 3 minutes. This is common practice for the Council and in other communities. The public forum time is NOT to be used to discuss an issue. It's an opportunity for the public to bring an issue to the committee's attention but the committee should wait until the item is properly noticed on an agenda to take any action or have a long discussion so that the open meeting law is not violated. Staff would also recommend that the time limits be printed right on the agenda to make the public aware of them. Lastly, the committee bullet point stating the committee may ask questions should also be deleted. This has led to the committee getting into long discussions on items that really should be separate agenda items properly noticed to the public. Options: 1) Adopt the public forum guidelines as presented 2) Amend and then adopt the public forum guidelines 3) Do not set any guidelines for the public forum portion of the agenda Scandia Public Forum Guidelines • Anyone who wishes to speak during the Public Forum time on a topic not covered in the agenda may do so. • Please limit your time to 5 minutes. • The Committee members may want to ask questions. • The Committee will not necessarily make a decision at that time. The Committee will let you know what your next step will be if you require an action from the City.