Nazareth Area School Board proposes limiting total public comment time to 30 minutes a meeting

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

The Nazareth Area School Board is considering implementing a time limit on members of the public who speak at their board meetings.

Currently, there is no limit for how long a resident may speak during two public comment periods, one at the beginning and one at the end of each board meeting.

Under a newly proposed policy, those two periods would be limited to 15 minutes each, and the time would be split evenly among the speakers, Superintendent Victor Lesky said.

Board President Lorin Bradley said Monday the proposal was not intended to discourage public input, but rather help the meetings run more efficiently.

"What it really does is allow for all public to participate," he said. "It doesn't allow for a person or group of people to dominate or take over."

The proposed policy would give the board the discretion to extend the public comment periods. Board Vice President Maurice Heller said he believes they would use that discretion often, particularly for topics that generate a lot of discussion.

"You don't want to sit here and hear 10 people say the same things. ‘OK, we get the point,'" Heller said. "But on the other hand, we certainly don't want to discourage public comment and public interest."

A first reading for the public comment policy was held Monday. Before it is passed, Lesky said a second reading will be held at the upcoming Monday meeting, and a third reading will be held in November.

Under the proposal, if three people or less speak during one of the 15-minute comment periods, each one gets no more than five minutes, Lesky said. If more than three participants speak, those 15 minutes would be divided equally among them.

"When I was elected to this position, I felt I had a target on me and I had to stand willing and bale to take anything and everything the public needed to share with me, because that's why I was elected," Darrell Crook said. "… I see this as limiting the ability of the public to do that."

He expressed particular concern with a provision in the policy that taxpayers wishing to speak must sign a request form no more than five minutes before the meeting begins.

Crook feared that would prohibit comments from people who wished to discuss an issue that does not come up until the middle of a meeting.

Gary Brienza, the district's solicitor, will review the policy proposal, and Bradley asked him to consider Crook's comments while doing so.

Bradley said the policy stemmed from suggestions at a state training meeting for school board officials.

However, the board waited to introduce it until after the budget season because they did not want to create a perception they were trying to limit public input on the budget, he said.

Lesky said he reviewed several public school districts in the state in drafting the policy, including the Central Dauphin and Quakertown Community school districts.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/nazareth/index.ssf/2011/10/nazareth_area_school_board_con.html