City council may start cracking down on people who sign up late to speak at a council meeting.
It’s up to council to vote during a council meeting whether or not it will allow a delegation not on that meeting’s agenda and typically council approves the late delegation.
People who wish to speak to council are supposed to submit a delegation form to city hall before 3 p.m. on the Wednesday prior to the council meeting. But recently council has been approached by people wanting to speak who have not made the deadline to be put on the agenda.
Coun. Andy Adams, at the May 13 council meeting, suggested council needs a policy or a set of guidelines to follow when dealing with late presentations.
“We have had the situation where there have been a number of late delegations come on and I certainly understand the timeliness of it, however, I would like staff to sort of investigate the pros and cons of it,” Adams said. “Do we let a late delegation on for a full 10 minutes or do we do what other municipalities and regional districts do, and that is put late delegations on at the end or maybe for a shorter amount of time, taking into consideration people who have put their presentation on the agenda and may have to wait for a much longer time that what they anticipated.”
Coun. Claire Moglove, who recently has consistently voted against allowing late delegations, agreed that council could benefit from a policy dealing with unexpected presentations to council.
“I think I’ve made it pretty clear over the last few months that I will be voting against that, unless there’s a timeliness for that particular late delegation,” Moglove said. “But having a report from staff on how to manage it I think would be appropriate.”