How Philly Works: How you can participate in City Council II
At today’s City Council session, President Darrell Clarke announced new
limits to the three-minute public comment rules we told you about in our
early morning edition of HOW PHILLY WORKS.
If you haven’t gotten a chance to read it, here it is again.
Here’s what he said and here’s what happened on the floor of Council.
- January 26, 2012
What possible limits can there be to a three-minute rule?
Clarke announced that Council will use lights to strictly control the three-minute rule: A yellow light means the speaker has 30 seconds left; a red light means your time is up. In case you keep going, it will be tough to hear since the microphone will go dead.
Did President Clarke impose other limits?
No, but he did interrupt today’s three speakers to remind them that they could only talk about something that could be voted on today – meaning, the rules of Council.
Did the speakers obey?
Sort of. They did keep their remarks short, but only the first speaker talked about Council’s rules. He protested restricting public comments only to bills that could be passed that day. He said the public should be able to comment on any city issue, telling Council, “You represent our interests, we don’t represent yours.”
Did the other speakers stay on topic?
No. Speaker #1 mentioned a gun law passed during Council’s last four-year session. (Clarke said that was a creative way to get around the only-bills-to-be-voted-on-today rule.) Speakers #2 and #3 talked about bills that were introduced today, but not yet ready to be voted on.
Did the microphone go dead?
No. President Clarke allowed all three speakers to talk – briefly. He said it was because only three speakers signed up for the public comment period.
What will happen during the next public comment period?
Our best guess: A dead microphone after the red light.
And if the speaker doesn’t stop talking?
Who knows? As we advised in today’s earlier edition: Figure out what you want to say in advance. Put your best arguments first. Stay within the three minutes.
Are the limits on public comments fair?
Tell us what you think by e-mailing
futureofthecity@philly.com. You should also let your representative in Council know if you believe the public deserves more than three minutes to talk in front of Council – or should be allowed to say whatever they want.
You can also interact with us on social media. Our Twitter handle is @Committeeof70 and we post all our materials (and other fun stuff) on our Facebook and Linkedin accounts.