The Ann Arbor City Council postponed taking action Monday night on proposed changes to council rules that would limit public speaking times to two minutes.
Ann Arbor resident Tom Partridge, who spoke before council multiple times Monday night and ran down the three-minute clock each time, said he objected to the proposed limits, which also would prevent him from signing up to speak at the start of every meeting as he does now.
Ann Arbor resident Tom Partridge, who speaks out at just about every opportunity at nearly every City Council meeting, complains about the proposal to limit public speaking times at the start of Monday night's meeting.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
"I'm asking that the further suppression of public freedom of expression and rights on this historic week — with July 4 coming up — be taken off the agenda," Partridge added. "And instead of diminishing the public participation time, it be expanded."
The proposed changes would reduce speaking turns from three minutes to two minutes during public comment periods. Also, speakers would not be able to reserve one of the 10 slots to speak at the start of the meeting — as Partridge does just about every meeting — if they already spoke at the start of the last council meeting.
Council member speaking times also would be reduced. Under the current rules, council members are allowed to speak up to two times per agenda item — five minutes the first time, and three minutes the second time. That's proposed to drop to three minutes and two minutes, respectively.
It's expected that council members still could ask as many questions of city staff as they needed to clarify an issue during deliberations.
Hieftje said he's not wedded to the proposed reduction in speaking times for members of the public, but he said council meetings have gotten longer. The council's deliberations have lasted past midnight into the early morning hours on a number of occasions in recent months.
Ann Arbor resident James D'Amour addressed council members Monday night and said he likes some of the proposed rules changes — especially the addition of public input opportunities at informal council work sessions. But he argued two minutes is too short.
"I think more accessibility is better," he said.
If the fact that large crowds are showing up to speak out before council and making meetings run late is behind the push to shorten speaking times, D'Amour said, council members instead should take a look at themselves and what they might be doing wrong, rather than slaying the messenger.
"The game you need to play here is to be more accessible rather than less," he said, suggesting better public policy results when there's more dialogue. "Keep the three-minute rule."
Ann Arbor resident Michael Benson told council members he was pleased to find out a couple weeks ago that if he wanted to give council members a handout at a meeting, he could do that.
"And if I have an extra copy for the clerk, that would actually be included in the minutes," he pointed out. "That's wonderful. I think that could help alleviate some folks' concerns about the potential reduction in speaking times, but I would just encourage (the city) to advertise that better."
Benson said he knows some people are concerned that two minutes might be too limiting, but he argued most people make their point in the first 30 seconds anyway.
After Benson finished addressing council on two different issues, using up the entire three minutes he was allotted, Partridge remarked: "That was a long 30 seconds."
Previous coverage: Rules changes would limit speaking times for public and council members in Ann Arbor
Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.