EDITORIAL: Wait your turn to speak

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April 29, 2008

Staff Reports The Journal-Register Tue Apr 29, 2008, 06:51 PM EDT

There are meetings we go to regularly, and frequently the only ones in the gallery are us. Medina is the exception to what appears to be the rule in many cases around Orleans County.

Monday night there were residents young and old at the Shelby Town Hall, where the village meetings are now held. They filled almost every available seat. Then some of them began talking out of turn.

There’s an agenda to follow at each board meeting and the public does receive a copy of that agenda. The clerk usually puts copies of it at the end of each row of chairs. So, our question is, are those residents who are so civic minded that they come out for the meetings not reading the agenda? It felt that way Monday night.

Following a public hearing on the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year — a time when residents are encouraged to speak — members of the public at large continued to interrupt the business matters to be taken care of on the agenda.

Certainly Mayor Adam Tabelski tried to relieve to issue, but he appeared frustrated when his comments were disregarded.

We have a temporary solution. Mr. Tabelski and members of the board, prior to each meeting, perhaps a rundown of the rules is in order. Remind the taxpayers and the future taxpayers who attend that their time to speak is at the end of the meeting, as it is now, before you pay the bills. Not everyone gets the agenda or reads it, and while they should be aware of when the public comment time is, we all need to be reminded once in a while.

It’s not all on the board’s shoulders, though. Members of the public who attend should also remember that the village is run like a multi-faceted business and in a business meeting, the action items are taken care of before the non-decision makers have a chance to speak. Certainly open dialogue with your elected officials is what we all desire, but the truth is, during a public meeting, there are only certain times the public is given their five minutes to speak — some of those times being the public comment portion on the meeting, at public hearings and before and after the meeting.

All in all, just wait your turn to talk and the meetings with the new board may go a little smoother, at least in regard to dealings with the community.

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