Frank Miller
The Columbus City Council has a new process for public comment that gives community members a chance to address council members during meetings on non-agenda items.
Community members can fill out a form and will get an opportunity to speak near the end of council meetings, as long as the form is filled out in advance. Forms are available online and physical forms will be at meetings as well that can be filled out as late as right before public comment begins.
People can find that form online at: https://www.columbus.in.gov/addressing-city-council-sign-up-form/.
Some general rules include:
- Topics must be within the Columbus City Council’s authority.
- This is an opportunity to address the council members only. Concerns cannot be addressed to the mayor, department heads, or any city employee.
- Personnel issues will not be heard.
- The council president is charged with keeping decorum of the meeting, and has discretion as to what topics will or will not be allowed to be presented.
- Presenter will be allowed 3 minutes to share, the same amount of time the council allows each person during the course of the council meeting on agenda items.
- No foul language, posters, signs, applause, jeering, threats or yelling will be allowed.
Columbus City Council President Frank Miller said the change is in part due to the city’s shift to second-class city status. Previously, the mayor would chair the meetings. Now, Miller does and he wanted to formalize the process so the public could raise topics important to them, even if it’s outside the council agenda, while ensuring what they are discussing is within the council’s jurisdiction.
Miller, in his 13th year on the council, said participation in the meetings during his time has risen “a lot.”
“We definitely wanted to go back to the idea of affording people the opportunity to address the council. But in our past experience — like on the form states, there’s certain topics that are not within city council’s jurisdiction,” Miller said. “We just felt that formalizing the process just was a better way to go about it, and having someone start and stop them in the middle of them starting to talk— that wasn’t a good look.”
Miller said Indiana Code actually states that no one shall address the city council without city council approval, which he called “a pretty harsh code.”
“We don’t want to follow that, we want people to be able to come and say and discuss and share their opinion on any agenda item — or in this case at the end of the meeting — any non-agenda item, because I think they should be afforded that opportunity here, regardless of what the code says.”
As council president, what is discussed remains under Miller’s sole discretion and even if he deems a topic is not within their jurisdiction, he said he’d still be happy to talk with the person after the meeting so he can point them in the right direction.
This is not to be confused with public comment that is already available during meetings, but comments during that time have to be relevant to whatever topic is being discussed on the agenda.
